In recent years there have been no major recorded
collections of Michael Head’s songs. Lammas now put this
right and I hope they will go on to tackle C.W Orr and Margaret
Wegener.
Richard Rowntree has a pastel-inflected, fragile,
light-toned tenor something in the manner of Ian Partridge
though not his equal. This should suit these too rarely encountered
poetic blooms by Michael Head. The enunciation is excellent
but breath control can be fallible. A slight choke in the
voice infrequently betrays the strain these songs put on
his voice.
Michael Head was born in Eastbourne on 28 January
1900. His education was interrupted by call-up in 1918. The
next year saw Boosey & Hawkes publishing four songs Over
the Rim of the Moon. This was also the same year in which
he began studying with John Ireland. Ireland was a close
associate of Alan Bush. Head married Bush’s sister Nancy
who also became his librettist for a series of small-scale
opera projects. In 1927 Head became professor of Piano at
the RAM, a position he retained until retirement in 1975.
He became well known as a broadcaster and performer of his
own songs from 1924 onwards often accompanying himself in
his own songs. He died in Cape Town from a sudden illness
on 24 August 1976.
The pianist David Bednall takes his role with
notable artistry and is pliant to Rowntree in the shaping
of Head’s gently lyrical songs. These are not all simple
melodics. For example there’s darkness in the bell references
in Foxgloves to the words of Mary Webb and also in
the quiet detonations of the Rossetti setting of Love’s
Lament. The latter has an untypical protesting tone that
I associate with Havergal Brian’s songs. Green Rain – again
setting Mary Webb – inhabits a world not far distant from
the mildew of Warlock’s Along the Stream. Bednall
lovingly evokes the subtle raindrop imagery. By contrast
there is the glancing and pointed delight of A Piper – recently
heard by me on Janet Baker’s 1962 English song anthology
newly reissued on Regis. A troubadour sweetness is accorded
to A Green Cornfield, to Love not me for comely
grace and to the masterly When Sweet Ann Sings with
its gracefully rounded refrain. These are most lovingly shaped
by Rowntree. The warm hymning of the English countryside
continues in the slightly Delian England to words
by de la Mare. The four songs of Over the Rim of the Moon date
as a set from 1919. Good to hear them as a set rather than
excerpted. They range from the dreamy silvery tintinnabulation
of The Ships of Arcady, the chiming forthright Beloved which
puts considerable stress on Rowntree with the melodic line
falling across the bar lines to the elusive moody The
Rim of the Moon (Nocturne). Many Head songs have
a distinctive signature – a mix of pastoral warmth, serenade
and soft melancholy – and you can hear it in full play in Dear
Delight and in slight measure in A Slumber Song, You
Shall not go a-Maying and in A Summer Idyll where
aestival warmth holds sway.
David Bednall’s Thomas Hardy setting rocks and
tolls carrying a rising dramatic discharge. This is not that
far removed from Head though perhaps more Pierrot-expressionist
than anything the older composer wrote. Howells’ King
David was also on that Regis Janet Baker disc. This beautiful
turmoil-stilling song is given an engaging performance. The
disc ends with two Gurney songs: Down by the Salley Gardens and Sleep which
are both most sensitively done.
The poems are printed in the booklet but Beloved is
tr. 10; not tr. 11. They are correctly listed on the reverse
of the case but in wrong sequence in the poem listing. The
booklet omits the words of waggish The Twins.
There is room in the catalogue for many more Michael
Head projects. I hope someone in the family might permit
the issue of Head accompanying himself of which there must
be many archive tapes as well as the old Onslo LP ART-51-I.
We also need recordings of such fine songs as The Estuary, Echo
Valley and On the Wings of the Wind. Then there’s
the late A Cornish Song-cycle superbly premiered on
radio by Wendy Eathorne with Geoffrey Pratley in 1976. Meantime
I hope that Lammas, Rowntree and Bednall will continue their
exploration and next time have the confidence to let us have
an all-Head selection.
Rob Barnett
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Richard Rowntree (tenor) 
