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Solo Song
Two Songs for Soprano and Chamber Orchestra
Year: 1926
Opus: 7
Duration: 8 minutes
Text: Walter de la Mare, Harold Munro
Instrumentation:
1.0+1.1.1/2.0.0.0/harp and strings
Manuscript:
British Library, London. MS Mus. 416, ff. 1-27: Full score in ink.
Notes:
1. The Moth (Walter de la Mare)
2. Overheard on a Saltmarsh (Harold Munro)
Two Songs for Voice and Piano
Year: 1926
Text: W.B.Yeats
Manuscript:
British Library, London. MS Mus. 425, ff. 1-9; (No. 2): Score in ink.
First Performance:
No. 1 - Hortense Houghton (soprano) and Alan Bush (piano). Rudolf Steiner Hall, London, 15 June 1927.
Notes:
1. The Lake Isle of Innisfree
2. Down by the Salley Gardens
Cradle Song for an Unwanted Child for Voice and Piano
Year: 1928
Text: Randall Swingler
Manuscript:
British Library, London. Add. MS. 52464B, ff. 3-7: Autograph fair copy.
'Songs of the Doomed' - Four songs and an Epilogue for tenor (or baritone), female chorus (SSAA) and Piano
Year: 1932-33
Opus: 14
Duration: 15 minutes
Text: F.C.Boden
Manuscript:
British Library, London. MS Mus. 422, ff. 20-51.
First Performance:
Geoffrey Dunn (tenor), London Labour Choral Union, Conductor: Alan Bush, Morley College, London, 8 March 1933.
Notes:
Text: Poems taken from 'Out of the Coalfields' by F.C.Boden.
1. 'Despair is at heart and hatred for ever'
2. 'When daylight's breaking'
3. 'Beauty dwells uncertain here in homes unsure'
4. 'Here they lie, that once had breath'
5. 'Epilogue: Hush be still, you bitter thing'
The Prison Cycle (Pages from 'The Swallow Book') for Mezzo-Soprano and Piano
Year: 1939
Opus: 19
Duration: 10 minutes
Text: Ernst Toller
Manuscript:
Royal Academy of Music, London. Nos. 1, 2 and 5 (MS Lam 502); Royal National College of Music, Manchester. Nos. 3 and 4 (RNCM ms. 026).
First Performance:
Anne Wood (mezzo-soprano) and Alan Bush (piano), Conway Hall, London, 15 December 1939.
Notes:
Written in collaboration with Alan Rawsthorne.
Text: Poems from Ernst Toller's Schwalbenbuch.
1. Introduction (Alan Bush)
2. Song (Alan Bush)
3. Interlude (Alan Rawsthorne)
4. Song (Alan Rawsthorne)
5. Epilogue (Alan Bush)
Publication:
Forsyth Brothers Ltd., Manchester, 2005.
Recording:
 Prison Cycle (2003) CD
'Voices of the Prophets' - Cantata for Tenor and Piano
Year: 1953
Opus: 41
Duration: 18.5 minutes
Text: John Milton, William Blake, Peter Blackman
Dedication: "To Peter Pears and Noel Mewton-Wood."
Commission:
Commissioned by Sir Peter Pears.
Manuscript:
Unknown. Sketches in British Library Deposit 2005/32.
First Performance:
Peter Pears (tenor) and Noel Mewton-Wood (piano). Recital Room, Royal Festival Hall, London, 22 May 1953.
Notes:
Texts:
1. From the 65th Chapter of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah: "For Behold, I Create New Heavens"
2. From the Oration "Against the Scholastic Philosophy" by John Milton: "So At Length the Spirit of Man"
3. From "Selections from Milton" by William Blake: "Rouse Up, O Young Men"
4. From "My Song is For All Men" by Peter Blackman: "Over the Years"
Publication:
Joseph Williams (now Stainer & Bell), London, 1953. Vocal score.
Recording:
 Music by Alan Bush (1994) CD
Four Seafarers' Songs for Baritone with Piano Accompaniment
Year: 1961
Opus: 57
Duration: 11 minutes
Manuscript:
British Library, London. MS Mus. 425, ff. 10-25: Score in ink.
First Performance:
Philip Lewtas (baritone) and Alan Bush (piano), Morley College, London, 19 November 1961.
Notes:
Texts from the Penguin Book of English Folk Songs:
1. The Ship in Distress
2. Ratcliffe Highway
3. The Greenland Fishery
4. Jack the Jolly Tar
Publication:
Galliard, 1964. Vocal score.
Recording:
'The Freight of Harvest' - Song Cycle for Tenor and Piano
Year: 1969
Opus: 69
Duration: 19 minutes
Text: Sylvia Townsend Warner
Dedication: "To Joseph Ward."
Commission:
Commissioned by the Dartington Summer School of Music.
Manuscript:
British Library, London. MS Mus. 425, ff. 26-89: Draft score in pencil; Score in ink.
First Performance:
Dartington Hall, Dartington, 8 August 1969.
Notes:
Text: Poems by Sylvia Townsend Warner.
1. Country Thought from a Town
2. The Sailor
3. The Maiden
4. The Load of Fern
Publication:
Alan Bush Music Trust, 2010. Contact the Alan Bush Music Trust for details and prices.
'Life's Span' - Song Cycle for Mezzo-Soprano and Piano
Year: 1974
Opus: 79
Duration: 18 minutes
Text: Nancy Bush, C. Day Lewis
Manuscript:
British Library, London. MS Mus. 426, ff. 1-32: Scores (Nos. 1, 2 and 4) in ink; (No 3) Draft score in pencil.
First Performance:
Katinka Seiner (mezzo-soprano) and Alan Bush (piano), Shenstone New College, Bromsgrove, 2 April 1973.
Notes:
Texts:
1. A Child Asleep by Nancy Bush - 1958
2. Learning to Talk by C Day Lewis - 1961
3. The Long Noonday by Nancy Bush - 1974
4. Beauty's End is in Sight by C Day Lewis - 1974
Publication:
Alan Bush Music Trust, 2010. Contact the Alan Bush Music Trust for details and prices.
Sovietskii Kompozitor, Moscow, 1963. No. 2 (with words in English and Russian).
Recording:
'De Plenos Poderes' - Song Cycle for Baritone and Piano
Year: 1976-77
Opus: 86
Duration: 14 minutes
Text: Pablo Neruda
Manuscript:
British Library, London. MS Mus. 426, ff. 33-72: Score in ink.
First Performance:
Graham Titus (baritone) and Alan Bush (piano), Wigmore Hall, London, 30 October 1977.
Notes:
Spanish text by Pablo Neruda:
1. Nada Más (Nothing More)
2. El Perezoso (The Lazy Man)
3. El Pueblo (The People)
Translated as 'From Fully Empowered'.
'Woman's Life' - Song cycle for Soprano and Piano
Year: 1977
Opus: 87
Duration: 14 minutes
Text: Nancy Bush
Commission:
Commissioned by Woking Music Club.
Manuscript:
British Library, London. MS Mus. 426, ff. 73-91.
First Performance:
Sylvia Eaves (soprano) and Alan Bush (piano), Central Hall, Woking, Surrey, 12 February 1978.
Notes:
Poems by Nancy Bush:
1. Prologue
2. Weaving Song
3. Factory Day
4. Epilogue
Publication:
Alan Bush Music Trust, 2010. Contact the Alan Bush Music Trust for details and prices.
Recording:
Two Shakespeare Sonnets for Baritone and Chamber Orchestra
Year: 1980
Opus: 92
Duration: 15 minutes
Text: William Shakespeare
Dedication: "To Nancy Bush" (with a note of presentation to her on the 50th anniversary of their wedding, 31 March 1931).
Instrumentation:
1.1.1.0/2.0.4.0/timpani/piano/strings
Manuscript:
British Library, London. MS Mus. 420, ff. 20-71: Full score in ink.
First Performance:
Graham Titus (baritone), BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra, Conductor: Bryden Thomson, Promenade Concert, Royal Albert Hall, London, 5 August 1981.
Notes:
Text by William Shakespeare:
Introduction
Sonnet No. 18: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"
Idyll
Sonnet No. 60: "Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore."
Dance

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'The Winter Journey' - A Christmas Cantata for Soprano and Baritone Solo, Mixed Chorus, String Quintet and Harp
Solo Song
'Voices of the Prophets' - Cantata for Tenor and Piano
'The Freight of Harvest' - Song Cycle for Tenor and Piano
'Life's Span' - Song Cycle for Mezzo-Soprano and Piano
'Woman's Life' - Song cycle for Soprano and Piano