Gardening is one of Martin Bussey’s passions and this short cycle of four songs reflects different aspects of that theme. Individual songs can be performed alone without any detriment to their sense. The cycle has proved highly effective as part of graduate and post-graduate recitals. Its contrasts provide a firm structure, and the songs have an approachable though by no means simplistic style. Many singers have testified (including Roddy Williams and Sir Thomas Allen) to its excellence in writing for baritone!
1. The Garden (setting of Andrew Marvell)
This measured song explores the tranquillity and solace of a garden in a lilting, calm musical idiom, largely tonal and rhythmically regular.
The piece has been recorded by baritone Marcus Farnsworth with James Baillieu, piano and can be accessed via YouTube or Spotify.
2. Planting Flowers on the Eastern Embankment (Po Chu-i 819 (tr. A.Waley))
Planting Flowers exploits a minimalist approach in the piano accompaniment, which requires a strong rhythmic nerve! It suggests distant bells to capture the atmosphere of a warm evening in a Chinese garden. The singer, as the Governor-General, reflects ruefully that the people do not care for flowers as he does. Nonetheless, he raises his glass of wine to nature in melodic phrases moulded to capture the rhythmic outline of the ancient poem.
The piece has been recorded by baritone Marcus Farnsworth with James Baillieu, piano and can be accessed via YouTube or Spotify.
3. Planting Trees (setting of John Evelyn)
The initial simplicity of Planting Trees belies its emotional intensity. It was inspired by a TV interview with a parent on a day of a terrorist attack. She did not know if her child was safe. John Evelyn describes how Ulysses, returning home from the wars, appears unrecognised to his father, who is planting trees. When challenged as to why he plants trees he will never see fully grown, the old man affirms, not recognising to whom he is speaking, that he plants them in anticipation of the time when his son will return. The music builds gradually to this powerful statement of familial love with harmonic intensity and a strong melody over regular minim chords.
The piece has been recorded by baritone Marcus Farnsworth with James Baillieu, piano and can be accessed via YouTube or Spotify.
4. Mr Hancock’s Letter (Thomas Hancock, 1737)
Mr Hancock’s Letter has gained a life of its own as a humorous account of the gardening trials of an eighteenth-century American. Mr Hancock is writing to his garden supplier, none of whose seeds or bulbs come up. His growing exasperation is characterised in ostinato figures in the piano as the voice delivers the letter in emotionally charged phrases. Calling for both humour and power the song makes an ideal recital finisher. There is nothing as satisfying as hearing an audience laugh in response.
The piece has been recorded by various baritones:
Marcus Farnsworth with James Baillieu, piano
Michael Kelly with Kathleen Kelly, piano (US performance)
Peter Edge with Gamal Khamis
- ISMN: 9790570683215 (M570683215)