Amy Woodforde-Finden: The Oriental Song-Cycles

Discovery Club Members Save 30%!
Login or Join Today
£8.00£12.50

Catalogue No: TOCC0236
EAN/UPC: 5060113442369
Release Date: 2014-06-02
Composer: Amy Woodforde-Finden
Artists: David Miller, Michael Halliwell

Amy Woodforde-Finden (1860-1919) wrote a number of 'oriental' song-cycles, one of which, the Four Indian Love Lyrics of 1902, contained the 'Kashmiri Song' — beginning 'Pale hands I loved beside the Shalimar' — that became a runaway success in its own day. These ballads have long since fallen from favour, but they contain plenty of honest sentiment, good tunes and splashes of local colour — and their hints of inter-racial love and lesbian romance must have given a real frisson to their contemporary audiences.

Michael Halliwell, baritone
David Miller, piano

Listen To This Recording:

    Four Indian Love Lyrics (1902)

  1. I The Temple Bells
  2. II Less than the dust
  3. III Kashmiri Song
  4. IV ‘Till I wake
  5. A Lover in Damascus (1904)

  6. I Far across the desert sands –
  7. II Where the Abana flows –
  8. III Beloved, in your absence –
  9. IV How many a lonely caravan
  10. V If in the great bazaars –
  11. VI Allah be with us
  12. Six Songs from ‘On Jhelum River’ (1906)

  13. I Jhelum Boat Song
  14. II The song of the Bride
  15. III Will the red sun never set?
  16. IV Ashoo at her Lattice
  17. V Only a Rose
  18. VI Kingfisher Blue
  19. A Dream of Egypt (1910)

  20. I Beside the lonely Nile –
  21. II Within the Sphinx’s solemn shade
  22. III Pomegranate is your mouth
  23. IV I envy every circlet
  24. V I wakened when the moon
  25. Stars of the Desert (1911)

  26. I Stars of the Desert
  27. II You are all that is lovely
  28. III The Rice was under water
  29. IV Fate
  30. The Myrtles of Damascus (1918)

  31. I The Myrtles of Damascus
  32. II After Drought
  33. III At Nightfall
  34. IV I did not know
  35. V L’envoi

2 reviews for Amy Woodforde-Finden: The Oriental Song-Cycles

  1. :

    ‘…Michael Halliwell’s excellent liner-note puts his finger on this perfectly – ‘the exotic Orient’. Refined and sanitised for the delicate palate of the Edwardian Salon nearly all the songs here aspire to the frisson of danger and the deliciously seductive unknown that the dark continents promised. …I admire the enthusiasm of baritone Michael Halliwell for this project and he is excellently supported by pianist David Miller who finds exactly the right balance between romantic sentiment and ensuring the music keeps moving rather than wallowing in another moment of dewy-eyed reflection.’

    —Nick Barnard, MusicWeb International

  2. :

    ‘These are attractive parlor songs, and baritone Halliwell clearly knows them well. He wrote the excellent program notes that accompany the disc, and he sings them with a sense of genuine involvement. […] David Miller’s accompaniments are very strong.’

    —Henry Fogel, Fanfare Magazine, November/December 2014

Add a review

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *