Composer: Amy Woodforde-Finden
Performer: Michael Halliwell, David Miller
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Toccata
Catalogue: TOCC0236
Release: 2014
Size: 279 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
4 Indian Love Lyrics
01. No. 1. The Temple Bells
02. No. 2. Less Than the Dust
03. No. 3. Kashmiri Song
04. No. 4. ‘Till I Wake
A Lover in Damascus
05. No. 1. Far across the desert sands
06. No. 2. Where the Abana flows
07. No. 3. Beloved, in your absence
08. No. 4. How many a lonely caravan
09. No. 5. If in the great bazaars
10. No. 6. Allah be with us
On Jhelum River
11. No. 1. Jhelum Boat Song
12. No. 2. The song of the Bride
13. No. 3. Will the red sun never set?
14. No. 4. Ashoo at her Lattice
15. No. 5. Only a Rose
16. No. 6. Kingfisher Blue
A Dream of Egypt
17. No. 1. Beside the lonely Nile
18. No. 2. Within the Sphinx’s solemn shade
19. No. 3. Pomegranate is your mouth
20. No. 4. I envy every circlet
21. No. 5. I wakened when the moon
Stars of the Desert
22. No. 1. Stars of the Desert
23. No. 2. You are all that is lovely
24. No. 3. The rice was under water
25. No. 4. Fate
The Myrtles of Damascus
26. No. 1. The Myrtles of Damascus
27. No. 2. After Drought
28. No. 3. At Nightfall
29. No. 4. I did not know
30. No. 5. L’envoi
Amy Woodforde-Finden (1860–1919) epitomises the Edwardian drawing-room ballad but she had an extraordinary beginning in life: she was born in Chile to a British mother and an American who was British consul in Valparaiso. The cover features the only known photograph of her.
Her song-cycle Four Indian Love Lyrics of 1902 contains the ‘Kashmiri Song’ (it begins ‘Pale hands I loved beside the Shalimar’) that became a runaway success in its own day. Her five other ‘oriental’ song-cycles, which have long since fallen from favour and are revived here for the first time, contain plenty of honest sentiment, good tunes and splashes of local colour.
Their hints of inter-racial love and lesbian romance must have given a real frisson to their contemporary audiences.
Michael Halliwell was principal baritone for many years with the Netherlands Opera, the Nürnberg Municipal Opera and the Hamburg State Opera. He is now on the staff at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where he has served as Chair of Vocal Studies and Opera, Pro-Dean and Head of School, and Associate Dean. David Miller is widely recognised as one of Australia’s leading chamber musicians and vocal accompanists. He has been appointed as a member of the Order of Australia for his service to music. He has been on the staff of Sydney Conservatorium of Music since 1980 and in 1995 was appointed Chair of the Ensemble Studies Unit.