Early Songs Part 1

John Eccles’s active theatrical career spanned a period of about sixteen years, though he continued to compose occasionally for the theater after his semi-retirement in 1707. During his career he wrote incidental music for more than seventy plays, writing songs that fit perfectly within their dramatic contexts and that offered carefully tailored vehicles for his singers’ talents while remaining highly accessible in tone. This edition includes music composed by Eccles for plays beginning with the letters A–F. These plays were fundamentally collaborative ventures, and multiple composers often supplied the music; thus, this edition includes all the known songs and instrumental items for each play. Plot summaries of the plays are given along with relevant dialogue cues, and the songs are given in the order in which they appear in the drama (when known).

Britain, long revered for its choral music and partsongs, had largely neglected art songs since the Elizabethan era. The middle of the nineteenth century witnessed efforts to revive the genre, particularly in the works of Sir C. Hubert Parry and Sir Charles Villiers Stanford. The following generation, including the Scottish composer Hamish MacCunn (1868–1916), built on the foundations laid by Parry and Stanford and served as the bridge to the vocal music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, Sir Edward Elgar, Ivor Gurney, John Ireland, and ultimately Benjamin Britten. Though best known for his Scottish-influenced compositions, MacCunn composed over 100 songs that, free from national constraints, are some of the most refined and sophisticated examples of his music. Almost no modern editions of MacCunn’s song exist, though many were published during the composer’s lifetime. The current two-part edition presents the composer’s 102 extant songs. Part 1 contains 53 individual songs; part 2 presents the songs that were first published as sets.

xxxvi + 91 pp.

xxi + 211 pp.Published in three parts, vols. A48, A49, A50

John Eccles’s active theatrical career spanned a period of about sixteen years, though he continued to compose occasionally for the theater after his semi-retirement in 1707. During his career he wrote incidental music for more than seventy plays, writing songs that fit perfectly within their dramatic contexts and that offered carefully tailored vehicles for his singers’ talents while remaining highly accessible in tone. This edition includes music composed by Eccles for plays beginning with the letters R–W, along with secular songs and catches by Eccles that were not associated with plays. These plays were fundamentally collaborative ventures, and multiple composers often supplied the music; thus, this edition includes all the known songs and instrumental items for each play. Plot summaries of the plays are given along with relevant dialogue cues, and the songs are given in the order in which they appear in the drama (when known).