Catherine Bott, Joseph Cornwell, The Parley Of Instruments, Peter Holman - Fairest Isle: A New National Songbook (English Orpheus 47) (2000)

Tracklist

01. Harlequin Restor'd: Medley Overture
02. King Arthur, Z. 628, Act V: Fairest Isle, All Isles Excelling
03. The Lass of Richmond Hill
04. The Mock Marriage, Z. 605: Twas Within a Furlong of Edinboro' Town
05. Twelfth Night: When That I Was a Little Tiny Boy
06. The Beggar's Opera (Arr. Pepusch), Act II: Air 37. Cease Your Funning
07. The Plough Boy / The Milkmaid
08. The British Grenadiers
09. Overture in G Major, Op. 4 No. 9
10. Sally in Our Alley
11. The Broom of Cowdenknowes
12. Farewell to Locaber
13. English Songs, HWV 228: No. 19, The Melancholy Nymph
14. Love in a Village: The Miller of Dee
15. The Oddities: Tom Bowling
16. Alfred: Rule, Britannia

Until about 1970 every English child learned a repertory of 'national songs' at school. It included traditional songs from Scotland, Wales and Ireland, but the bulk of them consisted of English popular songs from the 'long eighteenth century'—roughly from the Glorious Revolution of 1688 to the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837. The repertory has often been thought of as 'folk music', but in fact it is quite different in character from the genuine folk songs collected in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by Cecil Sharp, Percy Grainger and their associates. Despite the fact that they tend to deal with rural life, most of them are by professional 'art' composers working in London, and were written for the theatres or the pleasure gardens. Like many popular songs written more recently, they offer a nostalgic, urban evocation of the countryside, though they are none the worse for that. For this recording Peter Holman has mostly chosen pieces that can be traced back to an original setting by a named composer, though two of the beautiful settings of Scottish songs that J C Bach made in London in the 1770s have been included.

The most obvious way in which the developing sense of British national identity was celebrated in the repertory was through overtly patriotic songs such as Fairest Isle and Rule, Britannia, both of which can be heard here.

With many well-known songs, and sleeve notes which trace their source, this disc is sure to illuminate all!

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