Settings for Baritone and Piano by John Whittaker

'When I Set Out From Lyonesse', 'Weathers', 'In the Small Hours' and 'The Voice'

These two songs are from a group of 5 Hardy settings for Baritone and Piano. 'When I Set Out From Lyonesse' and 'Weathers' are sung by baritone Mike Sanderson, 'In the Small Hours' and 'The Voice' are sung by baritone Peter Edge. I wrote to them soon after my Hardy opera - based on 'The Three Wayfarers'. They were written at the suggestion of Stephen Connock,  who was at the time the chairman of the Vaughan Williams Society and had been impressed by my little opera. He had in mind a project involving recording a collection of settings of Hardy's poetry for voice and piano and persuaded me to try my hand at making some new settings for the recording. The project never actually came to fruition, but the songs I wrote remain. If anyone wishes to hear other songs or obtain the music, please do not hesitate to contact me. 

The songs can be heard here:

When I Set Out From Lyonesse

Weathers

In the Small Hours

The Voice

© John Whittaker 2023

John can be contacted at: https://john-whittaker.org

• Associated pages
• Visiting the Sick Tree at St. Pancras Old Church Cemetery
• 'Great Things' and 'The Oxen'
• Desperate Remedies
• A Laodicean - Part of the Novels of Ingenuity Trilogy
• The Withered Arm
• The Heaths of Hardy
• Best and Worst Poems of Thomas Hardy
• Tess (No Angel Wings)
• The Darkling Heart
• Great Things
• The Hand of Ethelberta - A New Play
• The Lepidopterist's Tragedy
• The Destruction of My England
• Henchard's Last Will and Testament
• The Gabriel Oak Tree
• The Three Wayfarers (Opera)
• Settings for Baritone and Piano by John Whittaker
• Hardy Perennials by Brenda Sharp
• Neutral Tones: Song Settings of the Poetry of Thomas Hardy
• Penpethy Souls
• A History of English Poesy
• The Coppice Gate
• Where the Picnic Was with a Musical Accompaniment by Gary Cunliffe
• In Praise
• Thomas Hardy Songs
• 'Bathsheba' by Izzy Rees
• The Three Strangers
• 'Interlopers at the Knap'
• 'What the Shepherd Saw'
• 'The Superstitious Man'
• Thomas Hardy's The Hand of Ethelberta
• Thomas Hardy Poems to Music

Dates for your Diary

From 14/09/2024 until 01/08/2026
Starts 09:00 until 18:00

Stourhead House and Gardens Trip

On 28/09/2024
Starts 12:00

10th DORCHESTER LITERARY FESTIVAL

From 12/10/2024 until 19/10/2024
Starts 12:00 until 19:30

MARK CHUTTER A LITERARY WALK – WESSEX WRITERS

On 13/10/2024
Starts 12:00 until 14:00

A Hedgehog Hospital for Dorset

Aug2024

Thomas Hardy Society Schools Outreach

Aug2024

Dorset Museum and Art Gallery

Aug2024

New Thomas Hardy book on his 'problematic' marriage

Aug2024