Candace:
On Wenlock Edge is a wonderful cycle of six songs for Tenor Voice, Pianoforte and String Quartet by Ralph Vaughan Williams to poetry by A. E. Housman ("A Shropshire Lad"). I am sure you are already well aware of this piece.
I did it with the Harrington String Quartet when I taught at West Texas State University. It was difficult to get the quartet to agree to perform with piano because they were rather new at that time and desirous of establishing themselves as soon as possible. Very understandable. The performance was mostly a reading and prepared in a very short time to emphasize the performing faculty on a newly created recital series. I would love to do it again in a less harried atmosphere and with more attention to the beloved details Vaughan Williams lavished on these wonderful Housman poems. The text is available at:
http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/merge.cgi?8
A soprano doing this work would place the voice well within the middle of the scoring for the upper strings but with a voice of distinction which , as I remember it, your is, I am sure it would be most successful and satisfying.
Please let us know what you finally decide to perform. -- Lloyd W. Hanson
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