By Anwen Greenaway
The twenty-fifth of January is the annual celebration of the Scottish poet Robert Burns. Legend has it that in 1801 a group of men who had known Burns gathered together to mark the fifth anniversary of his death and celebrate his life and work. The event proved a great success, so they agreed to meet again the following January on the poet’s birthday, and thus the tradition of Burns Night Supper was born. Today the celebration still features a haggis and recitation or singing of Burns’s work, in a tradition reaching back to the very first Burns Night celebration.
As Scots the world-over prepare to celebrate Burns Night we are pleased to be able to present an extract from the new book Robert Burns’s Selected Poems and Songs. It presents all the selected songs and poems in their original version, with the original melody printed alongside the text for the songs. Our extract, A Red Red Rose, is one of Burns’s most famous songs, originally published in Volume V of The Scots Musical Museum (1796), and the text of the poem has been set by many composers over the years.
A Red Red Rose
O my Luve’s like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve’s like the melodie
That’s sweetly play’d in tune.
As fair art thou, my bonie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my Dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry.
Till a’ the seas gang dry, my Dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun:
O I will love thee still my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.
And fare thee weel, my only Luve!
And fare thee weel, a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho’ it were ten thousand mile!
There are numerous different versions of this famous and evocative song. Here at Oxford University Press one of our favourites is John Gardner’s setting of A Red Red Rose in his choral work, A Burns Sequence. Gardner composed a new melody instead of using the traditional melody Robert Burns chose, and it makes a beautiful song. Take a listen to The National Youth Choir of Scotland’s recording with soloist Ross Buddie.
[See post to listen to audio]
Audio courtesy of the National Youth Choir of Scotland
Enjoy your Burns Night celebrations!
Anwen Greenaway is a Promotion Manager in Sheet Music at Oxford University Press and she would like to thank from Judith Luna, Senior Commissioning Editor, and Jenni Crosskey, Production Editor, for their assistance with this blog post. Read her previous blog posts.
Subscribe to the OUPblog via email or RSS.
Subscribe to only music articles on the OUPblog via email or RSS.
The post A song for Burns Night 2013 appeared first on OUPblog.
Compiled by Anwen Greenaway
2012 has been an eventful year for the OUP music teams. We’re in reflective mood as the year draws to a close, so we thought we’d share our highlights of 2012.
January
OUP’s most popular classical music publication had a documentary dedicated to it on BBC TV — “The Lark Ascending: the nation’s favourite piece of classical music” discussed the history of the work, and also included a complete performance of the fantasia for solo violin and orchestra.
February
World premiere of McDowall’s musical tribute to Scott of the Antarctic’s ill-fated expedition, Seventy Degrees Below Zero. The new work for tenor and orchestra was performed alongside Vaughan Williams’s Sinfonia Antartica, in a concert which featured “Downton Abbey”’s Hugh Bonneville (which caused great excitement!).
March
OUP composer Richard Causton was appointed lecturer in Music Composition at Cambridge University, one of the world’s most prestigious music teaching jobs.
April
Launch party for Groove Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip-Hop DJ by Mark Katz at our New York office, complete with DJs, a turntable, and an appearance by legendary DJ GrandWizzard Theodore.
May
Wells Cathedral
OUP composer Michael Finnissy’s Sincerity — his choral anthem commissioned for The Choir Book for the Queen — was premiered in the lovely surroundings of Wells Cathedral. The Choir Book for the Queen is a collection of contemporary anthems compiled and commissioned to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
June
Oxford Music launched on Twitter and gained 100 followers in the very first day. Follow us @OUPMusic.
The first public performance of Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia for Piano and Orchestra took place in the UK. Although the piece was composed in 1896 it had never been published until this year. It is the composer’s first known work for solo instrument.
Composer Will Todd wrote a new piece of choral music which was included in the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee service. Choristers from St Paul’s and a ‘Diamond Choir’ of young singers from around the UK performed The Call of Wisdom at St Paul’s Cathedral in London. We interviewed Will about it on our blog.
Anwen Greenaway (Promotion Manager) got married in Oxford, and was thrilled to receive a specially written Wedding Fanfare from composer Howard Skempton. He even turned up on the day to perform it with Anwen’s niece!
Howard Skempton and Anwen’s niece
Anna-Lise Santella (Editor of Grove Music/Oxford Music Online) won on the hit US quiz show “Jeopardy”! She won two days in a row on June 27th and 28th.
Anna-Lise on Jeopardy
July
The Southbank Centre in London was taken over by the New Music 20×12 team for a whole weekend in July. New Music 20×12 commissioned 20 twelve minute pieces of music from the UK’s leading composers to celebrate the talent and imagination of the UK’s musical community as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. OUP composers Howard Skempton and Richard Causton were both commissioned and their new pieces were included in the weekend celebration of the project.
Howard Skempton trying bell ringing at the Southbank Centre
The London Olympics were the highlight of 2012 for lots of the UK-based team. Lucy Allen (Print and Web Marketing Assistant) went to the fencing and Anwen Greenaway (Promotion Manager) went to the athletics. Seeing the world’s best athletes competing was mesmerising!
August
Chilcott’s The Angry Planet had its world premiere at the Royal Albert Hall in London as part of the 2012 BBC Proms concerts. The work was the largest piece commissioned for the proms this year and the concert was broadcast live on TV.
Richard Causton’s New Music 20×12 commission Twenty-Seven Heavens was performed in Amsterdam, Edinburgh, and Darmstadt by the European Youth Orchestra on their summer tour.
Click here to view the embedded video.
We were excited when Olympic swimmer and gold medalist Dana Vollmer linked to our blog post by Gerald Klickstein about how musicians and athletes can excel under pressure.
Our very own OUP history editor and author Nancy Toff won the 2012 National Service Award from the National Flute Association.
September
American dream pop band Asobi Seksu retweeted our post about Colony Records closing. It was a pretty exciting moment for our music book marketer, who is a fan!
October
Animation insider Daniel Goldmark visited the OUP office in New York to talk about music in Pixar films (including how music makes the beginning of Up so darn sad).
Kathryn Marsh’s The Musical Playground won the American Folklore Society’s Opie Prize.
The ASCAP Awards were announced, and three OUP titles won:
November
Vaughan Williams’s opera The Pilgrim’s Progress was performed at English National Opera: a rare treat, as the opera has only been performed handful of times since its premiere in 1951. OUP staff were thrilled to attend some of the performances!
Oxford Handbooks Online in Music launched. Oxford Handbooks Online in Music brings together the world’s leading scholars to write review essays that evaluate the current thinking on a field or topic, and make an original argument about the future direction of the debate.
It was Awards season!
OUP music titles were successful at the American Musicological Society awards:
And the Society for Music Theory Awards:
And at the Society for Ethnomusicology Awards:
December
Gabriel Jackson was honoured with his third British Composer Award – winning in the Choral category for his piece for choir and pianola, Airplane Cantata.
The OUP Music twitter feed reached 1000 followers!
John Rutter wrote a beautiful new carol, All Bells in Paradise, for the King’s College, Cambridge CD Nine Lessons and Carols. It was included in the Christmas Eve service at King’s College, Cambridge, which is broadcast around the world.
Click here to view the embedded video.
As an end of year treat music journals have given free access to the most read articles from each journal (Early Music, Music and Letters, Music Quarterly, and Opera Quarterly) in 2012. Read them quick. They’re only free until the 31st December!
Anwen Greenaway is a Promotion Manager in Sheet Music at Oxford University Press. Read her previous blog posts.
Subscribe to the OUPblog via email or RSS.
Subscribe to only music articles on the OUPblog via email or RSS.
Image credit: All images property of Oxford University Press unless otherwise stated. Do not reproduce without permission.
The post Oxford Music in 2012 appeared first on OUPblog.
