roger quilter biography

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Quillter was born at his parents' home in Hove, Sussex, UK, on November 1st 1877. 

He attended a preparatory school in Farnborough and in January 1892, he began at Eton College, where, though the emphasis was upon sporting achievement, he was allowed to pursue his musical studies. Around 1896, a family friend suggested that he continue his musical studies in Frankfurt. So Quilter enrolled at the Hoch Conservatory at Frankfurt-am-Main

Most of his best work was produced before 1923, though there are some superb songs produced after this time. He collaborated with Rodney Bennett on a number of projects, including the light opera, Julia, which was premièred at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in December 1936. For many years, his songs were broadcast frequently on radio.

In 1952, his 75th birthday was marked by the BBC with a celebration concert, conducted by Leslie Woodgate. He died within the year, and was buried in the family vault at Bawdsey church, Suffolk. A memorial concert in London was very well attended by family and fellow musicians, and by ordinary people who loved his music.

[Biography adapted from the composers website]

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Roger Quilter (1877 - 1953)

Dr Langfield is the leading authority on the life and music of English composer Roger Quilter.

Roger Quilter was known primarily as a gentle and gentlemanly composer of elegant songs. What is less well-known, however, is that he also wrote some lovely orchestral music and memorable piano pieces, that are distinctly impressionistic.

Quillter was born at his parents' home in Hove, Sussex, UK, on November 1st 1877. At that time, his father, a shrewd and extremely wealthy stockbroker and businessman, was still plain William Cuthbert Quilter, but in 1897, Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee Year, he became Sir Cuthbert Quilter, Bart. Sir Cuthbert was an art collector (his collection was well-known in its day) and he owned a very substantial estate in Suffolk, England.

Roger was the third of five sons, in a large family. His mother encouraged his artistic inclinations, and he was devoted to her. He attended a preparatory school in Farnborough and in January 1892, he began at Eton College, where, though the emphasis was upon sporting achievement, he was allowed to pursue his musical studies. However, Eton's atmosphere was not congenial for someone of his sensitivity, and in later years, he was reported to have said that he hated his time there. Around 1896 a family friend suggested that he continue his musical studies in Frankfurt. To go abroad to study was still a common route at this time, since the English music academies were not especially well-established. So Quilter enrolled at the Hoch Conservatory at Frankfurt-am-Main; he took composition lessons with Ivan Knorr, as did Balfour Gardiner, Norman O'Neill, Cyril Scott, and the redoubtable Percy Grainger, though they were not all there at the same time. They had in common a dislike of Beethoven, and they became known as the 'Frankfurt Group'.

On his return, he continued to write songs, having begun while at Frankfurt, and in March 1901, his Songs of the Sea were performed by Denham Price at the Crystal Palace. Gervase Elwes, one of the leading tenors of the day, began to sing Quilter's songs, and the song-cycle To Julia - which was dedicated to Elwes - put Quilter firmly on the map as a song composer. Over the succeeding years, Quilter continued to write songs for an appreciative audience. He also continued in poor health (his letters are peppered with references to how ill he was feeling), and consequently did not serve in the First World War. Instead, he organised concerts in various hospitals, and a series of chamber concerts that he was involved with continued after the war.

Gervase Elwes was killed in an accident at Boston railway station, Massachusetts, in 1921. The Musicians' Benevolent Fund, in the UK, was set up in his memory, and Quilter was a founder member, serving faithfully and attending the committee meetings regularly until his death. In 1923, he met a young baritone, Mark Raphael, whom he encouraged and worked with closely. He also had a private secretary, Leslie Woodgate, during the 1920s, and both Raphael and Woodgate remained lifelong and loyal friends.

In 1911, the children's play Where the Rainbow Ends was premiered at the Savoy Theatre, London; Quilter wrote the incidental music for it. Produced by Italia Conti, who subsequently founded the Italia Conti School (now the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts), it was immensely successful, and for many years Quilter conducted the opening matinée of the season. The parties for the cast of children, that he held at his home in Montagu Street, London, were also well-known.

Most of his best work was produced before 1923, though there are some superb songs produced after this time. He collaborated with Rodney Bennett on a number of projects, including the light opera, Julia , which was premièred at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in December 1936. For many years, his songs were broadcast frequently on radio.

He was a nervous, anxious man, cultured, well-read and well-travelled, but not happy with others of his social class unless they shared his love of the arts. His favourite nephew, Arnold Vivian, was killed in tragic circumstances during the second World War; the shock was immense, and was possibly (given Quilter's nature, the pressures on him as a result of his homosexuality, and other events) the final straw responsible for the triggering of his severe mental illness. In his last years, he was undoubtedly extremely difficult to live with, and there are allegations of blackmail; the events of these years are however open to different interpretations.

In 1952, his 75th birthday was marked by the BBC with a celebration concert, conducted by Leslie Woodgate. He died within the year, at his home in St John's Wood, London, on the 21st September 1953, and was buried in the family vault at Bawdsey church, Suffolk. A memorial concert in London was very well attended by family and fellow musicians, and by ordinary people who loved his music.

Quilter wrote mostly songs, but there are a few piano pieces, some orchestral pieces and some incidental music to theatrical works. There are a few chamber works, too: these are almost always arrangements of his other pieces. His music was superbly crafted, and has an irridescent quality. It is often extremely powerful (particularly the Five Jacobean Lyrics - not a quality usually associated with Quilter. The songs always lie well: this is one feature that made them so popular - there were never any awkward intervals - and the accompaniments are closely integrated with the vocal line. A wistfulness tends to pervade all Quilter's music: it is a very English sound, that we tend to associate with the Edwardian period, but perhaps it stems too from Quilter's own personality.

Because of his early fame as a song-writer, there appears to have been little call for him to write in any other genre. But his other music, though light in nature (he never attempted any long forms), is a delight to listen to, and a joy to play. His piano music in particular is freed of the restrictions of having to write comfortably for singers and their pianists; it is effective and atmospheric, and owes much to Debussy. 'At a Country Fair' (from Three Pieces for Piano ) has a percussive timbre with hints of Stravinsky's Petrushka . The Three Studies are still in print, in an excellent volume available through Boosey & Hawkes; the Three Piece s, Two Impressions and Country Pieces are also available from Boosey's as authorised photocopies.

I have compiled an extensive catalogue of Quilter's works, which is given in my book. Here, to tempt you, I mention a few very select items: either representative of his output, or ones that I particularly like.

O Mistress Mine, from the first set of Shakespeare Songs , Op. 6 No. 2 Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal, the second of Three Songs , Op. 3 I Arise from Dreams of Thee, Op. 29 Go, Lovely Rose, the third of Five English Love Lyrics , Op. 24 Drooping Wings

Chamber music

Three Poor Mariners , for piano trio

Piano Music

 From Three Pieces for Piano :         Summer Evening Op. 16 No. 2         At a Country Fair, Op. 16 No. 3 The third Study, from Three Studies for Piano , Op. 4

Orchestral, Theatrical and Incidental Music

A Children's Overture, Op. 17 Suite from the Incidental Music to Where the Rainbow Ends Love Calls through the Summer Night , from the light opera Love at the Inn which is included in its duet version on both the Naxos CDs mentioned below.

There have been many recordings made, over the years. Here's a very selective list: A Quilter Compendium (EMI Classics 5 85149 2) which contains a wide selection of songs, duets, choral music, A Children's Overture , the Suite from Where the Rainbow Ends and Stephen Hough's exquisite piano arrangements for good measure. As with the Naxos CDs, this is unbelievably good value. 

Song Collections

Philip Langridge, David Wilson-Johnson, Amanda Pitt and Joanne Thomas, with David Owen Norris (Naxos, The English Song Series , volume 11, 8.557495).  This contains the complete folksong arrangements, with many of the songs not recorded before. John Mark Ainsley and Malcolm Martineau (Hyperion CDA66878) David Wilson-Johnson and David Owen Norris (Hyperion A66208) - this is only available on LP, alas. Benjamin Luxon and David Willison (Chandos CHAN8782) Anthony Rolfe Johnson and Lisa Milne, with the Duke Quartet and Graham Johnson (re-released on Naxos, The English Song Series , volume 5, Roger Quilter)

Chamber music:

The Primrose Piano Quartet (Meridian CDE 84519), playing the piano sextet ‘Gipsy Life’. 

Orchestral music:

The Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Adrian Leaper (Marco Polo 8.223444).

Older recordings (on 78s) to look out for are those that Quilter made with Mark Raphael, on the Columbia label - seventeen songs, and definitive performances; numerous recordings were made of A Children's Overture and I particularly like George Weldon's performance, with the London Symphony Orchestra.

My own especial favourite is a very old recording, of William Brownlow singing Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal; it is a very moving performance. All Quilter's recordings (which of course include the Raphael performances, and Quilter himself conducting a selection from Where the Rainbow Ends ) have been re-mastered and are on the CD included with my book.

• Further Reading

For different viewpoints on his songs and English art song of the period, I strongly recommend Trevor Hold's The Walled-In Garden , 2nd edition, Thames Publishing, London 1996 ISBN 9780905210995 ; and Stephen Banfield's superb Sensibility and English Song , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1985 ISBN 9780521379441.

I can also thoroughly recommend Nicola Harrison's book The Wordsmith's Guide to English Song: The Songs of Roger Quilter , Compton Publishing, ISBN 978-1-909082-08-3 www.comptonpublishing.co.uk/the-wordsmiths-guide-roger-quilter.php. This gives an altogether different, and refreshing, viewpoint on the songs.

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• Quilter's Life
• Quilter's Music
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Roger Quilter Biography

I began my research into Quilter's life and music in 1996, and my book (written with the approval of the Quilter family and the literary estate) was published by Boydell and Brewe r, Woodbridge, Suffolk, in 2002. It is a study of all aspects of Quilter's life and music, drawing on substantial unpublished sources; it includes a catalogue of all his work, and a discography, and most usefully includes a CD of Quilter's own recordings. One chapter is devoted to Where the Rainbow Ends and another to his light opera Julia , which was heavily revised and published as Love at the Inn .

Click the book's image to read more about it, or purchase a copy.

I invite you to click here and e-mail me . I always respond to requests for information about Quilter, and will reply to you just as soon as I am able - but if you don’t hear back within a couple of days, do please email again!

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Roger Quilter

English composer Roger Quilter was known particularly for his songs. He belonged to the Frankfurt Group, a circle of composers who studied at the Hoch Conservatory in the late 1890s.

Quilter's reputation in England rests largely on his songs and on his light music for orchestra, such as his Children's Overture , with its interwoven nursery rhyme tunes, and a suite of music for the play Where the Rainbow Ends . He is noted as an influence on several English composers, including Peter Warlock.

Roger Quilter's output of songs, more than one hundred in total, added to the canon of English art song that is still sung today. Among the most popular are "Love's Philosophy", "Fair House of Joy", "Come Away Death", "Go, Lovely Rose", "Weep You No More", "By the Sea", and his setting of "O Mistress Mine". Quilter's setting of verses from the Tennyson poem "Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal" is one of his earliest songs but is nonetheless characteristic of the later, mature style.

He also published the Arnold Book of Old Songs , a collection of 16 folk and traditional songs to new accompaniments, dedicated to his nephew Arnold Guy Vivian.

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Roger Quilter

Quilter had to work hard at composition, but his output shows a composer with exceptional sensitivity and seemingly effortless grace.

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Roger Quilter : his life and music

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Gay and Lesbian Humanist

Winter 2003-2004, roger quilter: his life and music, by valerie langfield, reviewed by dan o’hara.

Probably no-one would rate Roger Quilter (1877-1953) as one of the half-dozen greatest English composers of the twentieth century. The claims of Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Holst, Delius, Walton and Britten to a place in that select band are self-evident, while competitors for any vacancy would include Frank Bridge, Michael Tippett, Malcolm Arnold, Lennox Berkeley, Arnold Bax and a handful of others.

Certainly, Quilter could not match any of these in terms of the range and quantity of his output. But there is one area in which he arguably outdoes all the others, with only Vaughan Williams and Britten as serious rivals, and John Ireland and Gerald Finzi among the first reserves, and that is as a composer of songs.

It was thus entirely fitting that, when, in 1986, at my urging, EMI issued A Treasury of English Song , a double- LP of historic recordings, it should contain more songs by Quilter than any other composer. It is as a miniaturist that Quilter excelled, like his close contemporary, Reynaldo Hahn (1875-1947). For, though each wrote some instrumental and theatre music and the occasional light opera, it is as composers of exquisite songs that both are chiefly remembered. Indeed, the piano introductions to Quilter’s “Music When Soft Voices Die” and Hahn’s “ L’heure exquise ” are breathtakingly similar.

Is it any coincidence that both were gay?

Hahn was born in Venezuela to a German-Jewish father, and a mother who had Spanish, Dutch and English ancestors. He was only four when his parents settled in Paris, and he became a quintessentially French composer, the darling of the Paris salons, and the lover of Marcel Proust, among others. There was something about the more relaxed atmosphere in Paris that allowed Hahn to become easy and open about his sexuality, whereas Quilter, an old Etonian from a monied, upper-class family, found the English legal and moral climate, in the wake of the Oscar Wilde trials, conducive only to a closeted and repressed existence. His emotional life was thus marked more by unfulfilled longings than by actual fulfilment; and, though there were some discreet sexual liaisons, they tended to be short-lived, unsatisfactory and tinged with guilt, which clearly exacerbated the psychosomatic illnesses, depression and mental instability that dogged him, especially in later years.

He was also deeply affected when his favourite nephew, and chosen heir, was killed in World War Two. Both Quilter and Hahn began writing songs at an early age, and both are most famous for early songs that are not, in fact, among their very best. In Hahn’s case, “ Si mes vers avaient des ailes ” was written when he was only thirteen, but his later songs, including the Verlaine settings and the Venetian songs, are much better. Quilter’s “Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal” was first published when he was 26, though an earlier version dates from his student days in Frankfurt.

Once again, some of his later songs – like the first set of Shakespeare songs (Op. 6), Seven Elizabethan Lyrics (Op. 12) and “Go, Lovely Rose” (his masterpiece) – are generally recognised as greater. While a student in Frankfurt, Quilter was one of a group of English-speaking ex-pats, including Percy Grainger, Cyril Scott, Balfour Gardiner and Norman O’Neill, who all had successful musical careers, though only Quilter and Grainger are now often heard.

Quilter and the Australian Percy Grainger both had close and complicated relationships with their mothers; but Grainger’s sexuality, though deeply masochistic, remained resolutely heterosexual. These two had a lifelong friendship, and it is thanks to a well-stocked Grainger archive in Melbourne that so many of Quilter’s letters have been preserved.

It is unfortunate that no central Quilter archive exists, and only a haphazard and widely dispersed selection of his personal papers has survived. Many of these have found their way into the British Library, but others are still held in a number of private and family collections on three continents, which has made the work of his first biographer difficult.

Undeterred by the lack of any central archive, Valerie Langfield, a Cambridge music graduate who has also studied singing at the Guildhall in London, has done a marvellous job in ferreting out public records and numerous private and obscure sources, recording reminiscences of surviving family and friends, or their offspring, and undertaking a thorough analysis of the published music and surviving manuscripts. She has also assembled an impressive collection of photographs, and a compact disc provided with the book contains all the known recordings, made between 1923 and 1945, in which Quilter participated: as piano accompanist to Hubert Eisdell, Mark Raphael and Frederick Harvey in some thirty of his songs; and as conductor of a studio orchestra in selections from his music for Where the Rainbow Ends (in the first production of which, in 1911, there appeared a precocious not-quite twelve-year-old boy named Noël Coward).

The best of Quilter’s one hundred or so original songs, together with his highly individual folk-song settings, are of the finest quality, though there was some falling off after 1929. Three sets of Shakespeare songs, Op. 6, Op. 23 and Op. 30, contain some of the most sensitive settings of our greatest poet in his own language, and the settings of Shelley, Herrick and Tennyson are also among his best.

But what of the man himself? It would be a mistake to regard Quilter simply as a minor composer with an unfulfilled personal life, for he was a man of deep feeling and wide sympathies, kind to animals and extremely generous with his considerable inherited wealth. Several budding composers, including Grainger and Peter Warlock (Philip Heseltine), might not have got their works published but for his generosity. And, perhaps unusually for one of his time and background, he was extremely generous and helpful to aspiring black musicians, including Lawrence Brown (with whom he probably had a brief fling), Paul Robeson, Roland Hayes and Marian Anderson. He also did much for Jewish musicians, including Mark Raphael, whose studies he financed and whom he regularly accompanied, and he was responsible for securing a future in this country for a number of German and Austrian Jewish artists and scientists threatened by the Nazi terror. He was, in addition, a founding member and lifelong trustee of the Musicians Benevolent Fund, established in memory of one of his earliest champions, the great tenor, Gervase Elwes.

It is sad, however, to read of his last years, when the married couple he had engaged as housekeepers took advantage of his failing powers to manipulate and rob him. There is even a suggestion of blackmail. It is probably due, in large part, to their influence that friends were latterly kept at bay, and that many of his personal papers were lost.

Valerie Langfield is to be congratulated on a great labour of love and a truly magnificent achievement. She appears to have left no stone unturned, though it is possible that the appearance of her book will encourage any others who have significant documents or relevant memories to come forward, and we anticipate further editions in which, perhaps, those parts of the picture that still seem less than clear may come into even sharper focus. Above all, it is a great celebration of the music, which seems once again to be attracting a growing audience.

Besides the invaluable archive recordings she includes, there are several modern CDs , which give a fair representation of Quilter’s art:

Hyperion CHA 66878: 39 songs sung by John Mark Ainsley, tenor, with Malcolm Martineau, piano (previously reviewed by me in these pages).

Naxos 8.557116: song cycle To Julia , and other songs, sung by Lisa Milne, soprano, and Anthony Rolfe Johnson, tenor, with Graham Johnson, piano, and the Duke Quartet.

Marco Polo 8.223444: orchestral music, including A Children’s Overture , English Dances , country pieces and suites from Where the Rainbow Ends , As You Like It and The Rake , Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Adrian Leaper.

EMI 5851492: A Quilter Compendium , containing recordings by Janet Baker, Ian Bostridge, Felicity Lott, Ann Murray, Thomas Allen, Stephen Hough and others.

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Roger quilter.

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Table of Contents

• Biography of Roger Quilter
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Short bio Roger Quilter

Full biography roger quilter.

Roger Cuthbert Quilter was a British composer known primarily for his elegant songs. He was born on November 1, 1877, and died on September 21, 1953. Quilter belonged to the Frankfurt Group, a circle of composers who studied at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt.

Quilter was born into a wealthy, land-owning household and began his musical education at Eton College. He continued his studies at the Hoch Conservatory and later at the Royal College of Music in London. Quilter's output was predominantly for voice, and he wrote more than 100 art songs throughout his career.

Quilter's musical style was influenced by the Romantic tradition, with a focus on melodic lyricism and harmonic richness. His compositions are known for their elegance, refinement, and subtle expressiveness. Quilter often set texts by poets such as Shakespeare, Tennyson, and Housman to music, and his songs remain popular with singers and audiences to this day.

Despite his reputation as a composer of art songs, Quilter also wrote orchestral and chamber music, including works for the piano, violin, and cello. He was also a skilled arranger, producing several collections of folk song arrangements and music for the theatre.

In summary, Roger Quilter was a British composer who specialized in art songs, with an emphasis on melodic lyricism and harmonic richness. His elegant and refined compositions continue to be popular with singers and audiences alike.

Compositions featuring Roger Quilter

Alfred Quidant

Marie-Anne-Catherine Quinault

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Roger Quilter

Born in Hove , Sussex [1] (a commemorative blue plaque is on the house at 4 Brunswick Square), [2] Quilter was a younger son of Sir William Quilter, a wealthy noted landowner, politician and art collector. Quilter was educated at Eton College and later became a fellow-student of Percy Grainger in Frankfurt, where he studied for almost five years. His reputation in England rests largely on his songs and on his light music for orchestra, such as his Children's Overture , with its interwoven nursery rhyme tunes, and a suite of music for the play Where the Rainbow Ends . He is noted as an influence on several English composers, including Peter Warlock. [3]

In November 1936, Quilter's opera Julia was presented at Covent Garden by the British Music Drama Opera Company under the direction of Vladimir Rosing.

Quilter enjoyed a fruitful collaboration with the tenor Gervase Elwes until Elwes' death in 1921. As a homosexual, he found it difficult to cope with some of the pressures which he felt were imposed upon him, and eventually deteriorated into mental illness after the loss of his nephew Arnold Guy Vivian during the Second World War. [4]

He died at his home in St John's Wood , London , a few months after celebrations to mark his 75th birthday, and was buried in the family vault at St Mary's Church, Bawdsey , Suffolk .

Adapted from a Wikipedia article.

• ↑ Judy Middleton Brunswick Town , 2001
• ↑ http://portsladehistory.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/brunswick-squares-famous-residents.html Hove, Portslade and Brighton in the Past
• ↑ http://www.grovemusic.com/shared/views/article.html?from=search&session_search_id=812525949&hitnum=1&section=music.22702& cite Grove Music Online "Quilter, Roger" ed. L Macy, =2008
• ↑ Valerie Langfield. Roger Quilter 1877-1953: His Life, Times and Music University of Birmingham 2004
• 1877 births
• 1953 deaths

Roger Quilter : his life and music

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• List of Illustrations Preface and Acknowledgements Abbreviations Editorial Note
• Chapter 1 Family background and Frankfurt, to 1901
• Chapter 2 From the Crystal Palace to Where the Rainbow Ends (1901 - 1911)
• Chapter 3 Inheritance, Montagu Street and the First World War (1911 - 1919)
• Chapter 4 Friends and relations (1919 - 1929)
• Chapter 5 Julia, Acacia Road, and the Second World War (1929 - 1939)
• Chapter 6 The Last Years (1939 - 1953)
• Chapter 7 Songs and choral works:
• Chapter 8 Songs and choral works:
• Chapter 9 Where the Rainbow Ends - the story of a journey
• Chapter 10 Light music, genre pieces and the miniaturist
• Chapter 11 The opera: The Blue Boar - Julia - Love at the Inn - etc Appendices A Quilter Family Tree B Schedule of professional performances of Where the Rainbow Ends C Personalia D Catalogue of works E Discography F CD Contents NOTE - dependent upon funding Bibliography L Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

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Roger Quilter

Roger Quilter was born in Brighton on 1 November 1877, third son of Sir Cuthbert Quilter. He was educated at Eton and then studied for four years in Frankfurt-am-Main under the Russian teacher of composition, Ivan Knorr. Fellow students were Cyril Scott, Norman O’Neill, Balfour Gardiner and Percy Grainger. All these were composers of some reputation in their lifetimes, but only Quilter and Grainger produced work which is still performed regularly today. Grainger is remembered for the extraordinary variety of his output, from simple entertainment pieces such as Country Gardens to works for chorus and large orchestra like Danny Deever and The Bride’s Tragedy . Quilter was a writer of songs, and virtually nothing else. There was an opera, Julia , and a couple of ballets, and the once well known A Children’s Overture . On the other hand he composed more than one hundred songs. At least half of these remain in the repertoire, loved by performers and audiences alike.

In 1900, when Quilter composed his first published songs, the tradition of the drawing-room ballad was still strong, with songs by Liza Lehmann, Maude Valérie White, Arthur Sullivan, Edward German and others selling well. It is true that Parry, Stanford and Somervell were trying to raise the standard of song-writing, but they were exceptional; even Elgar’s songs are mostly in the ballad tradition. At first sight Quilter’s songs appear to be equally devoted to the popular audience. There are no great technical demands on the performers, nor intellectual demands upon the listener. However, a Quilter song is instantly recognizable as such, with an individuality lacking in most of the composers mentioned above, at least in the field of song-writing. The vocal line has a natural flow, nearly always enhancing the rhythm of the words rather than forcing this rhythm into a preconceived melody. The accompaniments are almost unique in their layout; always providing rhythmic interest and snatches of countermelody for the pianist to find, but all without restricting the singer’s necessary rubato. For the songs of Quilter depend on a free use of rubato for their effect as much as do those of Bellini and Donizetti. However, these great Italian melodists gave little more than an Alberti bass as accompaniment, focusing all the attention on the voice. Quilter succeeded in creating a fully realized piano accompaniment which yet allows the singer full freedom. Pianists, as distinct from accompanists, will tend to find Quilter reasonably interesting and Bellini and Donizetti deadly dull to play. The true accompanist will find all three fascinating, needing immense sensitivity to the implications of the vocal line and the rhythmic freedom which results from a true understanding of the relation of words to music.

A third factor which raises Quilter’s songs above the level of most of his contemporaries is his choice of poetry. His favourite poets were Shakespeare, Herrick, Shelley and Blake; he also set a number of anonymous Elizabethan lyrics. Only Parry showed a similar taste in verse yet, like Parry, Quilter’s use of contemporary poetry is rather less understandable. Nora Hopper’s verse is trivial, and Sir William Watson’s not much better, while Ernest Dowson and W H Henley were hardly in the class of Herrick. Peter Warlock acknowledged his debt to Quilter and appreciated his work, as the following quotations from letters illustrate: Roger Quilter’s O mistress mine is ‘one of the very few things that very simply send me into ecstasies every time I play it’ (28 October 1912); ‘best lyrics … remain the sole example of modern English music that one can hear over and over again with enriched pleasure’ (9 August 1919). Warlock also sent Quilter a copy of his song Late Summer with the dedication:

To Roger Quilter, without whose genial influence there would have been no songs by Peter Warlock.

from notes by Michael Pilkington © 1996

Complete works available for download

Alphabetical listing of all musical works.

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Roger Quilter: His Life and Music Hardcover – April 1, 2002

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• Print length 396 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Boydell Press
• Publication date April 1, 2002
• Dimensions 6.25 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches
• ISBN-10 0851158714
• ISBN-13 978-0851158716
• See all details

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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Boydell Press (April 1, 2002)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 396 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0851158714
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0851158716
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.71 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches
• #16,882 in Music History & Criticism (Books)
• #27,212 in Composer & Musician Biographies
• #435,152 in Humor & Entertainment (Books)

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