~~~~~Composer biography~~~~~ (Note: This composer biography draws heavily from Valerie G. Langfield’s dissertation, “Roger Quilter 1877-1953: His Life, Times and Music,” which she wrote in 2004 while studying at the University of Birmingham _and_ after writing a book on Quilter. We strongly encourage you to view the dissertation here: etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/1354/. Without Langfield's work, much of the information about Quilter would have been scattered or forgotten.) Roger Quilter was an English composer active in the first half of the 20th century. Born in Hove, England in 1877, Quilter played the piano and sang from an early age. As a teenager, he attended the prestigious Eton College, where he felt out of place as a frail, unathletic, music loving student. After Eton, Quilter went to the Frankfurt Conservatory in Germany, where he was classmates with the English composers Cyril Scott, H. Balfour Gardiner, and Percy Grainger - a close friend of Quilter’s, though Quilter would later rebuke him for his antisemitism and belief in Nordic racial superiority. After graduating from the Frankfurt Conservatory, Quilter had a long-lived career as a composer, primarily of English songs. His best-known songs include “Love’s Philosophy,” “Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal,” and the various Shakespeare Songs. Quilter also wrote operettas, part-songs (songs for choir), and orchestral pieces, but he shied away from large-scale forms like symphonies and concertos. Having trained at the Frankfurt Conservatory, Quilter was a fine pianist as well. In the 1920s, he recorded many of his songs with the baritone Mark Raphael. These recordings are available on TH-cam, including one of “Love’s Philosophy.” Though he described African-Americans in terms that would not be acceptable today, Quilter was generous in his support of Black classical musicians. The legendary Black soprano Marian Anderson was a regular guest at Quilter’s home, and Quilter made a special arrangement of the spiritual “Heav’n, Heav’n” for her. Quilter also aided his Jewish friends who wanted to leave Nazi Germany and Austria for England. In a letter to Percy Grainger from 1939, he wrote “I loathe every form of bullying - most of all that which is done as if it were a holy duty, and something that was purging & purifying the one who bullies - that is why I _loath_ [sic] the German form of bullying and despise it with every fibre of my being.” World War II affected Quilter’s health and finances greatly. In particular, Quilter was devastated by the death of his nephew, Arnold Vivian, in war. In 1946, just after the war, he suffered a nervous breakdown; he wrote little music afterwards, and his health was vulnerable. Quilter died in 1953 in London, at the age of 76. ~~~~~Program notes~~~~~ Roger Quilter’s song “Love’s Philosophy” is set to Percy Shelley’s poem of the same name. For the song, Quilter uses the version of Shelley’s poem published in 1824 by Mary Shelley, which is less known to modern readers. The text of this version is below, with lines from the more popular version in brackets: The fountains mingle with the river And the rivers with the ocean, The winds of heaven mix for ever With a sweet emotion; Nothing in the world is single; All things by a law divine In one another’s being mingle [In one spirit meet and mingle] Why not I with thine?- See the mountains kiss high heaven And the waves clasp one another; No sister-flower would be forgiven If it disdained its brother; And the sunlight clasps the earth And the moonbeams kiss the sea: What are all these kissings worth [What is all this sweet work worth] If thou kiss not me? “Love’s Philosophy” begins with the piano foreshadowing the singer’s melody. The piano accompaniment continues with nearly uninterrupted sixteenth notes. Meanwhile, the singer’s melody, with its brightness, nearly speaks for itself. Quilter brings the music to a climax on the very last words of the poem, “If thou kiss not me.” The piano ends the song with a line marked “fff, very vigorous,” followed by two decisive F major chords. *Note: The composer biography and program notes are the result of many hours of reading, listening, writing, and editing. Please do not reproduce them without crediting us. Please also include the parenthetical note about the composer biography of Roger Quilter. ~~~~~Sources~~~~~ 1. Langfield, Valerie Gail (2004). Roger Quilter 1877-1953: His Life, Times and Music. University of Birmingham. Ph.D. (Note: In our opinion, this is an EXCELLENT, illuminating essay on Quilter’s life and work.) 2. Shelley, Percy. “Love’s Philosophy.” Poetry Foundation. Website last updated August 1, 2021. www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50262/loves-philosophy. 3. Shelley, Percy, and George Edward Woodberry. 1901. The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, 578-79. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co. books.google.com/books?id=H7MQAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA578
~~~~~Composer biography~~~~~
(Note: This composer biography draws heavily from Valerie G. Langfield’s dissertation, “Roger Quilter 1877-1953: His Life, Times and Music,” which she wrote in 2004 while studying at the University of Birmingham _and_ after writing a book on Quilter. We strongly encourage you to view the dissertation here: etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/1354/. Without Langfield's work, much of the information about Quilter would have been scattered or forgotten.)
Roger Quilter was an English composer active in the first half of the 20th century. Born in Hove, England in 1877, Quilter played the piano and sang from an early age. As a teenager, he attended the prestigious Eton College, where he felt out of place as a frail, unathletic, music loving student. After Eton, Quilter went to the Frankfurt Conservatory in Germany, where he was classmates with the English composers Cyril Scott, H. Balfour Gardiner, and Percy Grainger - a close friend of Quilter’s, though Quilter would later rebuke him for his antisemitism and belief in Nordic racial superiority.
After graduating from the Frankfurt Conservatory, Quilter had a long-lived career as a composer, primarily of English songs. His best-known songs include “Love’s Philosophy,” “Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal,” and the various Shakespeare Songs. Quilter also wrote operettas, part-songs (songs for choir), and orchestral pieces, but he shied away from large-scale forms like symphonies and concertos. Having trained at the Frankfurt Conservatory, Quilter was a fine pianist as well. In the 1920s, he recorded many of his songs with the baritone Mark Raphael. These recordings are available on TH-cam, including one of “Love’s Philosophy.”
Though he described African-Americans in terms that would not be acceptable today, Quilter was generous in his support of Black classical musicians. The legendary Black soprano Marian Anderson was a regular guest at Quilter’s home, and Quilter made a special arrangement of the spiritual “Heav’n, Heav’n” for her. Quilter also aided his Jewish friends who wanted to leave Nazi Germany and Austria for England. In a letter to Percy Grainger from 1939, he wrote “I loathe every form of bullying - most of all that which is done as if it were a holy duty, and something that was purging & purifying the one who bullies - that is why I _loath_ [sic] the German form of bullying and despise it with every fibre of my being.”
World War II affected Quilter’s health and finances greatly. In particular, Quilter was devastated by the death of his nephew, Arnold Vivian, in war. In 1946, just after the war, he suffered a nervous breakdown; he wrote little music afterwards, and his health was vulnerable. Quilter died in 1953 in London, at the age of 76.
~~~~~Program notes~~~~~
Roger Quilter’s song “Love’s Philosophy” is set to Percy Shelley’s poem of the same name. For the song, Quilter uses the version of Shelley’s poem published in 1824 by Mary Shelley, which is less known to modern readers. The text of this version is below, with lines from the more popular version in brackets:
The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the ocean,
The winds of heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In one another’s being mingle [In one spirit meet and mingle]
Why not I with thine?-
See the mountains kiss high heaven
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdained its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth
And the moonbeams kiss the sea:
What are all these kissings worth [What is all this sweet work worth]
If thou kiss not me?
“Love’s Philosophy” begins with the piano foreshadowing the singer’s melody. The piano accompaniment continues with nearly uninterrupted sixteenth notes. Meanwhile, the singer’s melody, with its brightness, nearly speaks for itself. Quilter brings the music to a climax on the very last words of the poem, “If thou kiss not me.” The piano ends the song with a line marked “fff, very vigorous,” followed by two decisive F major chords.
*Note: The composer biography and program notes are the result of many hours of reading, listening, writing, and editing. Please do not reproduce them without crediting us. Please also include the parenthetical note about the composer biography of Roger Quilter.
~~~~~Sources~~~~~
1. Langfield, Valerie Gail (2004). Roger Quilter 1877-1953: His Life, Times and Music. University of Birmingham. Ph.D. (Note: In our opinion, this is an EXCELLENT, illuminating essay on Quilter’s life and work.)
2. Shelley, Percy. “Love’s Philosophy.” Poetry Foundation. Website last updated August 1, 2021. www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50262/loves-philosophy.
3. Shelley, Percy, and George Edward Woodberry. 1901. The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, 578-79. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co. books.google.com/books?id=H7MQAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA578
I love that amezing😮😮
I will just represent that song in the next few weeks I believe I will make it