Kitty Whately & Julius Drake discover the songs of Madeleine Dring

Dring got here from a theatrical household (her father was a ventrioquist) and was finding out on the Royal School of Music junior division on the age of ten. She studied with Herbert Howells in addition to having classes from Gordon Jacob and Ralph Vaughan Williams. In type, her music is not at all leading edge, and definitely she lacks the harmonic adventurousness of these feminine contemporaries talked about above. What she creates, nonetheless, is a well-made tune that’s fearless in its intentions in direction of the phrases. These are songs which are about phrases and music, reasonably than merely being pleasant melodic felicities. She does have an ear for a tune, however by no means lets herself get carried away.

We open with a bunch of songs all of which set interval phrases, seventeenth and 18th century. Some texts are acquainted from different composers however Dring takes her personal method. Love is a illness is a putting piece of dramatic declaration, Echoes combines a sluggish swing with a young melancholy in its seductive line, Encouragements to a lover is perkily pleasant, and The Enchantment is melodically memorable

Melisande units phrases by a buddy, Daniel Ferguson Aiken, a New Zealand-born poet who additionally wrote the textual content for Dring’s opera Cabinet Love. Melisande is touching with a powerful whiff of wistful melancholy together with melodically memorable motifs. We return to older texts for a setting of Philip Sidney, My real love hath my coronary heart which could be securely dated to 1944. It’s a highly effective, critical setting of acquainted phrases that manages to render them one thing new.

Love and Time is a set of 4 songs composed within the Seventies. Every tune appears to take us by a unique part of life, the texts being seventeenth century. Probably the most putting factor is the way in which Dring offers every tune a thematically associated piano prelude, typically contrasting this with practically unaccompanied voice. The primary begins in a Debussy-ish type, however the reasonably free vocal line strikes intriguingly away from this. The second begins in the identical type earlier than launching unexpectedly right into a extra formal construction. The third is reasonably Kurt Weill-ish and the final results in a area of calm intent that Whately makes significant and shifting.

Weep you no extra unhappy fountains takes phrases set by Dowland however creates in them somewhat gem, lyrical and touching. We hear three of Dring’s Seven Shakespeare Songs which have been revealed within the Nineties (no phrase on once they have been written). The Cuckoo is melodically memorably but harmonically spicy, as Dring takes a determinedly completely different route. Take O take these lips away has a delicate, and shocking, lilt to it however by no means fails in its emotional message. It was a lover is, after all, insouciant however the piano has a definite whiff of the theatre tune to it. An entire delight. The Faithless Lover has phrases set each by Byrd and Roger Quilter, so no stress there! The piano half is rhythmic and intense, contributing to the anxious feeling of the vocal line. Jazzy, maybe, however distinctly edgy and dramatically apposite.

4 Night time Songs date from the 1976, and once more set phrases by a buddy, this time Michael Armstrong, a painter and a poet who despatched Dring verses, and he or she selected these 4. Dring appears to be exploring a reasonably darker, edgier world. Holding the Night time begins with a terrific piece of evening music within the piano, adopted by the voice alone, a tool Dring appears to gentle. The tune has an depth and a fancy darkness that’s absent from among the different songs. While a few of her different songs retain a component of eye-catching about them, there may be nothing right here. Frosty Night time is pressing and intent with a blinding piano evocation of the frosty evening, but there’s a darkish intent feeling right here to because the poet likens the darkish to his coronary heart. Via the Centuries is quiet and intent, centered and thought of with the phrases dropped at the fore. There may be much less darkness right here and the piece is melodically ingratiating although Whately and Drake give us moments of highly effective depth. Separation was left incomplete at Dring’s dying and accomplished by her husband. It’s a piece of centered quiet, fantastically wrought.

We finish with Dring in additional jeu d’esprit mode along with her Cole Porter association, besides there’s something intent and critical right here too!

Clearly there may be much more to Madeleine Dring than we now have realised and while others have explored a few of this territory (I keep in mind a high-quality disc from Robert Tear), Whately and Drake handle to make us take a look at this anew. I believe there may be room for exploration of this aspect to Dring alongside her camper, music-theatre impressed items however what Whately and Drake do is focus our consideration on Dring’s fantastically wrought songs and the intensely critical aspect to her artwork.

Via the centuries: Songs of Madeleine Dring
Kitty Whately (mezzo-soprano)
Julius Drake (piano)
Recorded 31 March – 2 April 2025, Potton Corridor, Dunwich, Suffolk 
CHANDOS CHAN 20390 1CD [63:24]