BRATTLEBORO REFORMER / AMAZON / New England Regional Press:
To my mind, a concert of English folk songs is one of the loveliest of musical experiences. I do not count such collections from the past in which Kiri Te Kanawa sings against a full orchestra or one in which Benjamin Britten's complex arrangements are substituted for the simple beauty of the originals. I have in mind the early Alfred Deller discs (now available on Vanguard CDs) in which the songs are sung a cappella or with a simple recorder and/or guitar accompaniment.
On a Divine Art CD, there is "Blow the Wind Southerly: Songs of Life & Longing from the North East of England" as a good example of what I consider a successful format. Of the 20 selections in this 53-minute collection, 14 are sung by soprano Margarette Ashton, five are nonvocal, with only flute, violoncello and pianoforte, and one with piano alone.
The most familiar tunes are "Bobby Shaftoe," "The Keel Row" and "The Oak and the Ash." The others do not appear on many other recordings, if indeed any others. (I am thankful not to have yet another "Danny Boy" to bear.) Among those less familiar songs are "Buy Broom Buzzens," "Bonny at Morn," "Water of Tyne" and "Blow the Wind Southerly." The sound of the ensemble is exquisite.
I have only one reservation, however, and that concerns understanding the lyrics. In a track or two, Ashton is just a bit too far from the mike; and in some selections, she sings in a Tyneside accent that does not sit comfortably in an American ear. Still, the program notes considerately provide the texts of the songs -- and all is well after all.
That stated, I recommend this Divine Art disc, as I said, as a lovely musical experience.
Frank Behrens
MUSICWEB:
This is a somewhat unusual disc because Blow the Wind Southerly is the name of an educational project devised by the early music performers Concert Royal and supported by the UK Heritage Lottery Fund. The project aims to revive, record and promote the heritage of vocal music from the north east of England to local schoolchildren and is delivered on late 18 th and early 19 th century period instruments. The musical elements in the programme can also be presented as a genteel Victorian parlour pastime at which friends might perform familiar music for their own pleasure and entertainment. To help the children become aware of their cultural roots, a programme of ninety schools' workshops began in October 2008 and will involve more than 3000 children over a 3-year period. The children participate in workshops and collaborative presentations, learning about their heritage through music and dance. Although the focus is on song, materials and workshops will place the music firmly in its social and historical context. Teaching materials and workshops have been developed to enable children and teachers to celebrate and enjoy their musical and cultural heritage through practical activities.
The instruments used by Concert Royal are authentic. According to the excellent liner notes, the flute by Cahusac is a typical late eighteenth century instrument with 6 finger holes and a single silver key. It is turned from boxwood and has a natural pitch is A430, lowered by a corp de rechange to A415 to match the piano. Thomas Cahusac, who died in 1798, was apparently a music seller, publisher and musical instrument maker who traded from Two Flutes and Violin opposite St. Clement's Church in the Strand for many years.
The English 'cello dates from around 1790 and was probably made by one ‘Lockey' Hill. Like many other 18 th century instruments it was ‘modernised' during the following two centuries to make a bigger, more penetrating sound for larger venues and to cope with the increasingly virtuosic ‘cello repertoire. More recently, it was converted back by lightening the internal construction and reducing the tension of the gut strings, allowing the instruments natural resonances to be drawn out with a modern copy of a period bow by Roger Doe.
The square piano used for the recording is by Broadwood and dates from the early 1840s. With a compass of over six octaves and a single sustaining pedal, its light but sonorous tone makes it ideal for accompanying the voice, flute and 'cello and also for performing the light textured solos beloved by the Victorians.
All of the music on the disc has been carefully researched . The performing scores are all based on reliable sources including 'A Selection of the most popular Melodies of the Tyne and the Wear' collected by Robert Topliff around 1815, Bruce & Stokoe's 'Northumbrian Minstrelsy' (1882) and C. Ernest Catcheside-Warrington's extensive collection of Tyneside songs first published in 1911.
As music chosen for the project's purposes or as a concert programme in suitable locations – Concert Royal often perform in National Trust properties for example - the selection deliberately concentrates on lyrical and romantic pieces, and is wholly appropriate for its purposes. Margarette Ashton also chooses to sing with only a slight north-eastern accent, an important presentational point in this context because the authentic ‘Geordie' dialect which features in most of the songs is essentially incomprehensible to people not brought up with it – which is sadly now the case even with north eastern children as recent local academic researches have shown.
The selection is full of fine and indeed memorable melody. In addition to the eponymous ‘ Blow the wind southerly' brought to vast audiences by Kathleen Ferrier's unforgettable recordings, some lesser known gems are the lullaby ‘Bonny at Morn' (Track 8) , the peddler's song ‘Buy Broom Buzzems (Besoms) at Track 4 and ‘Maa Bonny Lad' (Track 20) but there are many others.
Margarette Ashton sings tunefully with a clear soprano voice, light on vibrato but with a very nice lilt to it and her instrumentalist colleagues provide elegant support for her as well as some engaging solo piano and instrumental interludes. My only slight question about this disc is about how much it will satisfy as a stand-alone programme for people not familiar with Concert Royal's live performances. There is another side to north – eastern music of this period, a raft of music hall and comic song, which force majeur has had to be excluded..
Full details of the ‘Blow the wind southerly' project are available at www.blowthewindsoutherly.com
Bill Kenny
KLASSIK.COM (translated from German):
Interpretation 3/5; Sound Quality 3/5; Repertoire 4/5; Booklet 4/5
High society of the early Victorian period not only whiled away the time, it also hit the piano keys because part of good taste was a pianoforte set up in the salon. People gathered around it, adding other instruments to it and considered themselves lucky if the abilities of the singers complete with the technical skills of the instrumentalists. Editions of notes together with collections of then popular songs and traditional folk tunes belonged to such music-making at home. Now there is an effort to revitalize record and popularize this body of songs, long neglected in the interim.
For thirty-five years, the musical group Concert Royal with Margarette Ashton (vocals), Peter Harrison (flute), Rachel Gray (cello), and John Treherne (pianoforte) has devoted itself to the task. The ensemble has dedicated itself to the rich repertoire of vocal music from northeastern England in the region around Tynemouth. These songs won national significances through their popularity. Meanwhile the revitalization and care of this repertoire has resulted in a project of three years' duration that has also given its name to the CD under review: “Blow the Wind Southerly”. Another goal of this project is to make children aware of their cultural roots. The intent is to involve more than 3000 children in 90 workshops using a specially developed curriculum. Both teachers and students are to be re-sensitized to this body of songs by means of presentations and concerts. The National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund subsidized this project. The first CD with 14 songs and instrumental pieces has already been completed, i.e., this one here.
Is the ensemble Concert Royal not about to tilt at windmills? Hasn't the sharp wind of the present – ignoring the past – long blown toward the wind mentioned in the song “Blow the Wind Southerly”, which may lead the beloved to his beloved, which makes the youthful generation deaf for the past, without history, even more makes it without an awareness of history and has blown sensitivity and politeness with a catastrophic storm into social no-man's land? It gives me consolation to ask such questions because the now, the present, gives answers.
Wherever possible, the Concert Royal in Victorian costumes and with historical instruments sings and plays full of hope into hopelessness. Musically speaking, the ensemble is surely not condemned to fail with its project. Authenticity seems to be the commandment of the hour and this authenticity influences all aspects of this performance. The four musicians perform in sound created true to style for the atmosphere of a salon (since part of the recording was done in the church at Wickham, then this church is either very small or the technicalities of sound removed every echo from the recordings. John Traherne, who plays a table piano of the Broadwood Company 1830, delivers a very solid performance, both as soloist and as accompanist. Peter Harrison on the wooden flute (made of the wood of boxtree) and Rachel Gray on the cello (both instruments stem from the end of the 18 th century) are just as good as he is. At the same time, the instrumentalists deliver something “home-made”, but in the best sense phrased out and played freshly musically. Whether the songs about living, striving, loving and yearning would be better sung by a younger, less narrowly timbered voice – one could argue about that. Margarette Ashton, in any case, always renders traditional songs unpretentious, simple, home-baked. But even this home-baked-ness contributes here much more to the ideal than that it should be valued negatively. Finally, readers, after listening to this CD, should check out the project's website. There, namely, one can find some of the songs to be downloaded and sung and performed afterward.
Erik Daumann
MUSICWEB: ( A review in the Geordie language published for April Fool's Day 2009)
As the ony son iv a propley - sortificated herrin' gutter from Cullercoats mesel, like – me Mam wez a dab hand with hor little cleevor - aa'd thowt this disc would bring back memries of sittin on the cracket by hor knee as a bairn ; while aa watched hor filletin' tripe for me Dad's tea, ye knaa. Just like that French bloke Proust did wi' that Madeleine woman in ‘A la récherche du temps perdu', like.
An' then man, when I saa the nayem ‘ C. Ernest Catcheside-Warrington' in the linor noats, whey aa wez positively transported, – just as me Great Great Great Grandad had been ti Australia in days of yore - only more metaphorical, like. Ti this day, aa can still remember Catcheside's number one hit – ‘cept that we didn't caal records that them days - ‘ O luck at the sowldger' , waftin' off the wind-up gramophone in the netty of a summer's evenin':
‘O, luck at the sowldger,
Luck at his plates o' meat
As he warks alang the pavement, he tyeks up aal the street.
Wheniver aa'm oot upon the march, ye'll hear the laddies shoot,
O, luck at the sowldger, diz yer mother knaa yer oot ?'
But nee chance man,‘cos this disc is aal in English, ‘n its linor noats sez this:
‘ Music was an important pastime in Victorian times. A pianoforte in the parlour was an important status symbol and the ability to sing, and play musical instruments were valued social accomplishments. Blow the Wind Southerly is a collection of 14 songs in Victorian parlour settings from the north east of England, interspersed with contemporary instrumental pieces. In preparing the performing scores reference was made to a number of sources including 'A Selection of the most popular Melodies of the Tyne and the Wear ' collected by Robert Topliff around 1815, Bruce & Stokoe's 'Northumbrian Minstrelsy' (1882) and C. Ernest Catcheside-Warrington's extensive collection of Tyneside songs first published in 1911. Historic instruments recapture the sound world of the Victorian parlour; violoncello and boxwood flute date from the end of the eighteenth century and the 'square' pianoforte was manufactured by Broadwood in the early 1840's.'
Noo, that's aal fine enyuff like, ‘n iv course, by the time aa'd got to the grammer school next ti the brew'ry where they made Newcassel Broon Ale, bit by bit aa gradgelly lorned tarkin English mesel man, and the Geordie wez battored oot of iz –whey, ony a bit like and not that it did iz any harm, mind. But the majorty iv the parlours where me and me marrers sang these songs post-war were oaned by folk with north eastern twangs and if they'd giv'n up tarkin Geordie at work like, they could aal sing in it porfectly. Like as not, like, them posh Victorians wud have done the sayem thing, man.
Mind you, there's nowt wrang wi' any o' the music like – these folks are aall canny players and that Margarette Ashton's a canny bit singer too, with a bobby dazzler trebley sorta voice sure enyuff. ‘N the boxwood flute n' square piano are both little belters as wheell, so Concert Royal soonds in varry canny fettle aalthegither.
But a geet big problem for mesel like, is that it's aall a bit ‘ refeened ‘ on account o' the d'librit selection o' these songs speshly for a project for school bairns, which is wat the linor noats also sez. And that's aall canny too but for me porsonally like, it's a bit like Inspector Morse gannin on like Sergeant Lewis like, or a hacky mucky navvy wi' nee clarts on his boots. The English will like it fine, but a Geordie singin' like this doon the boozer wud get hoyed oot the winder, lickety-split.
Translation .
This is a perfectly pleasant recording of attractive music sung very prettily by Margarette Ashton and played nicely by the instrumentalists. The only slight problem with it - for the thoroughbred Geordie at least - is that the songs really need broader north-eastern pronunciation, as they sound somewhat tamer and less meaningful, when sung in parlour style English, than they might do in the authentic language. ‘Buy Broom Buzzems' (Track 4) is a case in point:
(Verse) If you want a buzzem (besom) for to sweep your hoose
Come to me my hinneys, you can have your choose .
(Chorus) Buy broom buzzems, buy them when they're new
Fine heather bred'uns better never grew
(Verse) It's buzzems for a penny, rangers for a slack
If you will not buy I'll tie them on my back
(Verse) If I had a horse I would have a cart
If I had a wife she would take my part
(Verse) If I had a wife I care not what she be
If she's but a woman, that's enough for me
(Verse) If she likes a droppie, her and I'd agree
If she doesn't like it that's the more for me.
But some compromises are necessary of course, because the programme is part of a project aimed at schoolchildren - and the tunes to the songs are often very fine – as anyone familiar with Kathleen Ferrier's own ‘Blow the wind southerly' would surely agree. The lullaby ‘Bonny at morn' for example will be a real find for anyone new to it. As an introduction to the traditional music of the North East, the disc is well worth a hearing, but as a taster for the North Eastern spirit as whole it lacks a certain ‘je ne sais quoi.'
“Jackie Milburn III”
MIDWEST RECORD:
If you know seafaring songs via Ewen MacColl and Clancy Brothers, this soprano singer certainly brings a different take to the proceedings. With a bunch of material that focuses on a softer side of the lure of the sea and the longing it leaves in it's wake, Ashton and her trio of historical instrument aficionados will put you right back in the bonny folk music boom of the early 60s, in a good way.
Chris Spector