Track 1-Drill, Ye Terriers, Drill [*]

Drill, Ye Terriers, Drill - a setting [by Rick] of this wryly humorous song about the dangers of working with dynamite.... big 'Jim Goff' finds his pay docked for the time that he spent 'up in the sky' when a premature blast caught the poor chap.
No Health & Safety here then!

Track 2-Dance to your Daddy [*]

Dance to your Daddy - this setting [by Rick] incorporates the two different melodies associated with this delightful folksong from [one presumes] the north.

Track 3-Ding Dong! Merrily on High

Ding, Dong! Merrily on High - from our Nov 29 2008 concert, when we premiered the Advent Carol Succession which also included some carols. Ding, Dong! is a 16th century French melody harmonized (in this version) by Charles Wood [1866-1926] to which G.R.Woodward [1848-1934] added the familiar words.

Track 4-I Wonder as I Wander

I Wonder as I Wander - a beautiful Appalachian carol as set by John Rutter, featuring Pippa Goss as soprano soloist.

Track 5-In Dulce Jubilo

In Dulce Jubilo - this is the old German carol as arranged by R.L.Pearsall [1795-1856], wonderfully rich and sonorous for double choir.

Track 6-Magnificat [from the Bird's Mass]

Magnificat - this is not quite what you might imagine! The text is by Barbara Ellis, a poet living near Blandford [Pimperne], part of a collection of poems which comprise The Birds' Mass. This is about a Rooster and his proud song... [Rick composed the music].

Track 7-In Vernali Tempore [*]

In Vernali Tempore - is a free setting of an anonymous melody in the collection Piae Cantiones [1582], written in March 1995 for Richard Hall and The Briantspuddle Singers. The Latin text rejoices in the welcome of Spring and the resurgence of life after the strife and sadness of Winter.

Track 8-The Three Ravens [*]

The Three Ravens & The Willow Song - These two beautiful Elizabethan tunes are both deeply melancholic and the first is pretty morbid with it: the ravens are discussing their breakfast when one of them espies a 'night slain 'neath his shield'. Fortunately he is protected by his hounds and later taken away and buried by a 'fallow doe as great with young as she might go'. In the second, the 'poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree' but there is no explanation as to what's wrong!

Track 9-The Willow Song [*]

Track 10-The Cuckoo [*]

The Cuckoo - is an old English folksong.

'I can remember, in my first teaching job, introducing all my classes to the delights of British folksong; as I played through the same music time and time again for the different classes, I made up new and varied harmonies and textures to suit the moods of each new verse. This helped to keep me interested, alert and awake - especially on a Friday afternoon!'

Rick Birley

Tracks marked [*] are taken from the CD 'A Dorset Affair'.

Rick still has many copies of this CD which was made by the choir in the mid 1990s, the entire profits of which still go to the local branch of the ME Association. The CD is now just £5 and you can ask Rick anytime for one... The time has come for us to make some more CDs of Rick's music - the Short Mass, the Birds' Mass, the Advent Carol Succession [all of which have been recorded live and can be obtained from Rick, as can most of the concerts we have done over the years - i.e. Songs of Time, Fern Hill etc.]

*****