Warm are the still . . .
Sing Ariel . . .
Lay your sleeping head . . .
Silence invades . . .
Driver, drive faster . . .
Now the leaves are falling fast . . .
Make this night loveable . . .
Restored, returned . . .

Length / Year
22' / 1973 rev. 1992

Instrumentation
mezzo/pfte

Reviews
" remarkable for the delicacy and intimacy of the musical response to the words. A deeply lyrical vein which has been apparent in the composer's writing for some time is usefully mined here with a skilful use of the human voice in songs which are immediately attractive "
Elaine Williams - Western Mail

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Performance History
First Performance
Royal Festival Hall, London
27th January 1977
Tay Cheng-Jim - counter-tenor
Graham Johnson - piano

Herts H. E. College, Aldenham
22nd October 1985
Alison Truefitt - soprano
Nancy Cooley - piano

St Giles Cripplegate, The Barbican
27th July 1986
Alison Truefitt - soprano
David Seaman - piano

Llanharan House (Vale of Glamorgan Festival)
26th August 1986
Alison Truefitt - soprano
David Seaman - piano

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Programme Note
My Auden Songs were written in 1974 in response to a Cardiff Festival commission. The process of writing the childrens' opera "PTOC" two years before that had opened out the possibilities of writing for the voice and when I came to work on this piece it was with a sense of real enjoyment. The composition proceeded fluently and the resulting songs are now the earliest work of mine that I feel happy with. Although unpublished they have been widely performed by, among others, Eirian James, Alison Truefitt and (in a version for tenor) by Neil Jenkins.

The poems that make up the cycle are as follows :

* ' Warm are the still . . .'
   ' Sing Ariel . . . '
   ' Underneath an abject willow . . .'
   ' Lay your sleeping head . . '
   ' Driver, drive faster . . . '
* ' Silence invades . . . '
   ' Now the leaves . . .'
   ' Make this night loveable . . .'
* ' Restored, returned . . .'

The three stanzas of the poem " Warm are the still . . " are used essentially unaccompanied at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the cycle. (see asterisks). At the time of composition I was happily unaware of other settings of these words especially Britten's. The lullaby ' Lay your sleeping head . . . ' was composed along with the other songs in 1974 but never performed. I rediscovered it recently in an old trunk and felt that my earlier censorship of it had been too harsh. I hope you agree.

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