Foxgloves - Jennifer Vyvyan sings Mary Webb's poem.

Michael Head's setting of Mary Webb's poem.
Soprano - Jennifer Vyvyan, Piano- Ernest Lush.
The photo is by Heather Buckley. The words are given below.

Foxgloves
The foxglove bells, with lolling tongue,
Will not reveal what peals were rung
In Faery, in Faery,
A thousand ages gone.
All the golden clappers hang
As if but now the changes rang;
Only from the mottled throat
Never any echoes float.
Quite forgotten, in the wood,
Pale, crowded steeples rise;
All the time that they have stood
None has heard their melodies.
Deep, deep in wizardry
All the foxglove belfries stand.
Should they startle over the land,
None would know what bells they be.
Never any wind can ring them,
Nor the great black bees that swing them--
Every crimson bell, down-slanted,
Is so utterly enchanted.

Recorded from an LP made to celebrate the coronation of ERII (1953).

From the Sleeve notes:
Head is well known in England as a composer of songs and also for his singing to his own piano accompaniment. Mary Webb's poem "Foxgloves" develops the imagery of the bells of the flower:
"The foxglove bells, with lolling tongue, will not reveal what peals were rung in Faery, in Faery, a thousand ages gone".

Michael Head (1900- 1976)
Jennifer Vyvyan (1925 - 1974)
Mary Webb (1881 - 1927)

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Musical setting, poem, poetry, song, piano,voice,romanticism,fairies.