Mary Wiegold’s Songbook is a collection of songs for soprano and, usually, an ensemble of two clarinets, viola, cello and double bass which were written at the invitation of the soprano Mary Wiegold and the composer John Woolrich. Around two hundred songs were collected, mostly written within a ten year period from the late 1980s.
The Songbook is ‘like a modern day codex- should nothing survive from the previous decade of British music save this, scholars would be able to form a reliable picture of the diverse compositional activity of those years.’ (Tempo)
Selected list of songs
Thomas Adès Life Story (Faber Music) Milton Babbitt Quatrains Simon Bainbridge A Song from Michelangelo (Musicsales) Harrison Birtwistle Night (UniversalEdition/Boosey) Harrison Birtwistle Tenebrae (Universal Edition/Boosey) Harrison Birtwistle White and Light (Universal Edition/Boosey) Gavin Bryars The Adnan Songbook No.5 (Schott) Niccolo Castiglioni Vallis Clausa (Ricordi) Aldo Clementi Wiegenlied (ESZ) Elvis Costello The Trouble with Dreams Franco Donatoni An angel within my heart (Ricordi) Detlev Glanert Contemplated by a Portrait of a Divine (Boosey) Vinko Globokar Letters (Ricordi) Osvaldo Golijov Sarajevo Lou Harrison Vestiunt Silve Jonathan Harvey You (Faber Music) James MacMillan Scots Song (Boosey) Roger Marsh Black Hair (Novello) Colin Matthews Cantata on the Death of Antony (Faber Music) Nicholas Maw The Head of Orpheus (Faber Music) Dominic Muldowney On Suicide (Faber Music) Olga Neuwirth The Cartographer Song (Boosey) Michael Nyman Polish Love Song (Musicsales) Tom Phillips Six of Hearts Poul Ruders Alone (Musicsales) Kurt Schwertsik Das Herr weis was der wil (Boosey) Kurt Schwertsik Human Existence (Boosey) Kurt Schwertsik singt meine schwäne (Boosey) Peter Sculthorpe From Nourlangie (Faber) Salvatore Sciarrino Due Risvegli e il Vento (Ricordi) John Tavener The Child Lived (Musicsales) John Woolrich The Turkish Mouse (Faber Music)
Discography Thomas Adès Life Story Mary Carewe/Thomas Adès EMI
Claron McFadden/Composers Ensemble/Thomas Adès EMI
Dora Ohrenstein/Alan Kay/Michael Lowenstern/Jeremy McCoy Koch International
Milton Babbitt Quatrains Tony Arnold, Charles Neidich and Ayako Oshima Bridge 9135
Simon Bainbridge A Song from Michelangelo Mary Wiegold/Composers Ensemble/Dominic Muldowney NMCD003
Sally Beamish Tuscan Lullaby Mary Wiegold/Composers Ensemble/Dominic Muldowney NMCD003
David Bedford Even Now Mary Wiegold/Composers Ensemble/Dominic Muldowney NMCD003
Harrison Birtwistle White and Light Claron McFadden/Nash Ensemble/Reinbert de Leeuw Teldec Classics 3984-26867-2
Christine Whittlesey/EIC/Pierre Boulez DG 439 910-2
Mary Wiegold/Composers Ensemble/Dominic Muldowney NMCD003
Harrison Birtwistle Tenebrae Claron McFadden/Nash Ensemble/Reinbert de Leeuw Teldec Classics 3984-26867-2
Christine Whittlesey/EIC/Pierre Boulez DG 439 910-2
Harrison Birtwistle Night Claron McFadden/Nash Ensemble/Reinbert de Leeuw Teldec Classics 3984-26867-2
Christine Whittlesey/EIC/Pierre Boulez DG 439 910-2
Gavin Bryars The Adnan Songbook No.5 Valdine Anderson/Gavin Bryars Ensemble Philips
Lou Harrison Vestiunt Silve Patrice Maginnis/The California Parallèle Ensemble/Nicole Paiement Mode 122
James MacMillan Scots Song Alison Smart/Katharine Durran Metier MSVCD92025
Colin Matthews Cantata on the Death of Antony Mary Wiegold/Composers Ensemble/Dominic Muldowney NMCD003
Colin Matthews Strugnell's Haiku Mary Wiegold/Composers Ensemble/Dominic Muldowney NMCD003
Dominic Muldowney On Suicide Mary Wiegold/Composers Ensemble/Dominic Muldowney NMCD003
Bayan Northcott The maidens came Mary Wiegold/Composers Ensemble/Dominic Muldowney NMCD003
Michael Nyman Polish Song Mary Wiegold/Composers Ensemble/Dominic Muldowney NMCD003
Tom Phillips Six of Hearts Mary Wiegold/Composers Ensemble/John Woolrich Largo 5138
Tom Phillips Mine is the Life Song Mary Wiegold/Mark van de Wiel Largo 5138
Peter Sculthorpe From Nourlangie Margaret Schindler/Perihelion Artworks CD (AW032)
Howard Skempton How Slow the Wind Mary Wiegold/Composers Ensemble/Dominic Muldowney NMCD003
Milan Slavicky Veni, Sancte Spiritus Lenka Skornickova/Mondschein Matous MK 0051-2 931
John Tavener The Child Lived Felicity Lott/Steven Isserlis RCA Victor 09026 68928 2
Keith Tippett Sun- the Living Son Mary Wiegold/Composers Ensemble/Keith Tippett NMCD003
Jane Wells One to Another Mary Wiegold/Composers Ensemble/Peter Wiegold Metier: MSVCD92043
Judith Weir The Romance of Count Arnaldos Mary Wiegold/Composers Ensemble/Dominic Muldowney NMCD003
Philip Wilby Easter Wings Mary Wiegold/Composers Ensemble/Dominic Muldowney NMCD003
John Woolrich The Turkish Mouse Mary Wiegold/Composers Ensemble/Dominic Muldowney NMCD003
References
Bibliography Robert Adlington The Music of Harrison Birtwistle (Cambridge University Press 2006) Jean-Yves Bosseur Tom Phillips- Sound of My Life (Delatour 2015) Jonathan Cross Harrison Birtwistle: Man, Mind, Music (Faber 2000) Michael Hall Harrison Birtwistle in Recent Years (Robson Books 1998) Jane Manning The New Vocal Repertoire 2 (OUP Oxford 1998)