Amy Woodforde-Finden: The Oriental Song-Cycles
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:
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Four Indian Love Lyrics (1902)
- I The Temple Bells
- II Less than the dust
- III Kashmiri Song
- IV ‘Till I wake
- I Far across the desert sands –
- II Where the Abana flows –
- III Beloved, in your absence –
- IV How many a lonely caravan
- V If in the great bazaars –
- VI Allah be with us
- I Jhelum Boat Song
- II The song of the Bride
- III Will the red sun never set?
- IV Ashoo at her Lattice
- V Only a Rose
- VI Kingfisher Blue
- I Beside the lonely Nile –
- II Within the Sphinx’s solemn shade
- III Pomegranate is your mouth
- IV I envy every circlet
- V I wakened when the moon
- I Stars of the Desert
- II You are all that is lovely
- III The Rice was under water
- IV Fate
- I The Myrtles of Damascus
- II After Drought
- III At Nightfall
- IV I did not know
- V L’envoi
A Lover in Damascus (1904)
Six Songs from ‘On Jhelum River’ (1906)
A Dream of Egypt (1910)
Stars of the Desert (1911)
The Myrtles of Damascus (1918)
MusicWeb International :
‘…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
Fanfare Magazine :
‘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