Arnold Book of Old Songs
A song collection dedicated to Roger Quilter's nephew, killed in World War II.
Roger Quilter arranged piano parts for sixteen folk and traditional songs from Britain and France, calling the set the Arnold Book of Old Songs. It honors his nephew Arnold Guy Vivian, who died in 1943 at German hands in Italy. Five of the songs date from 1921; the remaining eleven, composed in 1942, were written specifically with Vivian in mind.
Quick Facts
- Composer
- Roger Quilter
- Dedicatee
- Arnold Guy Vivian
- Number of songs
- 16
- Year of earlier songs
- 1921
- Year of later songs
- 1942
- Year of composer's death
- 1953
Facts from the source article.
Songs written for Arnold Vivian in 1942
Arnold Guy Vivian was the son of Roger Quilter's sister Norah and her second husband Guy Noel Vivian, born on 21 May 1915. He was named after Quilter's brother Arnold Quilter, who had been killed at Gallipoli fifteen days earlier. Roger Quilter, closer to that brother than to any other sibling, became deeply attached to his nephew. They shared a gentle sensitivity, and Arnold Vivian, who possessed a high, light tenor voice, often sang his uncle's songs. Quilter had earlier dedicated his song "Sigh No More, Ladies" from the 3rd Shakespeare Set, Op. 30, to him. At the start of World War II, Arnold Vivian joined the 6th Battalion of the Grenadier Guards and left England for active service in 1942. Quilter wrote a deeply personal song, "What Will You Do, Love?", for him at that time, never intended for publication and first recorded in 2005. Around the same time, Quilter began work on eleven new arrangements of old songs, hoping to welcome his nephew home. In 1943, Arnold Vivian was reported missing in action; his family did not learn his fate until after the war. He had been taken prisoner by German forces in Tunis, North Africa. Months later, while being transported by train from an Italian POW camp to Germany, he and his friend Lord Brabourne escaped near Bronzolo in the South Tyrol. They were recaptured on 15 September 1943 and summarily executed the same day, shot in the back of the neck while kneeling on railway tracks. Their bodies were left by the tracks as a warning, but local people buried them; they were later reinterred in the war cemetery in Padua. The atrocity was investigated as a war crime, and a former German officer was found guilty and executed. The news devastated Quilter and contributed to his mental decline. As an epitaph, he added the five earlier songs from 1921 to the eleven new ones, dedicating the entire set to his nephew's memory and naming it the Arnold Book of Old Songs. Each of the sixteen songs bears an individual dedication "To the memory of Arnold Guy Vivian". The songs were initially published separately by October 1947 and as a set in 1950.
Lyrics
Most songs in the collection use their well-known words, but the three French songs ("The Man Behind the Plough", "My Lady's Garden", and "Pretty Month of May") and the sole Welsh song ("The Ash Grove") employ new words by Rodney Bennett, a children's book author and poet who frequently collaborated with Quilter. Bennett's words to "The Ash Grove" were written in direct response to news of Arnold Vivian's death. The words to "My Lady Greensleeves" are attributed to Irish poet John Irvine and differ from the traditional ones; Quilter and Irvine had worked on a duet version, but the solo voice version was published in the collection.
Grainger's assessment
Roger Quilter's friend Percy Grainger was very favourably impressed with the Arnold Book of Old Songs. He wrote that they were a lovely string of gems, most touching in their humanity and typical of Quilter's heart-revealing skill in weaving tune-enhancing arabesques and comments round the melody in the accompaniment, comments that inject new meaning into the line and text of the melody. Grainger commended Quilter for preparing this nose-gay for his beloved kinsman and dedicating it to his memory, since he could not return to enjoy them, and reflected on the sweet and noble young men lost in war.
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