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NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT
Posted by paul corfield godfrey on September 22, 2020, 10:48 am
I have always been mildly puzzled by the fact that Kathleen’s Ferrier’s famous recording of Blow the wind southerly is credited as being sung in an arrangement by William Gillies Whittaker. While Whittaker was indeed responsible for the sung versions of other folksongs in her performances – The Keel Row and Ma Bonny Lad – his contribution to Blow the wind southerly appears to have been non-existent since Ferrier invariably sang the tune unaccompanied. Unless, that is, he was taking credit for the insertion of dynamics and phrasing, which one would normally ascribe to the performer rather than any arranger.
Which makes it even more surprising that in his new recording of the song (issued as part of his recent Decca album featuring the Elgar Cello Concerto) Sheku Kanneh-Mason has similarly taken credit for a straightforward rendition of the tune without any accompaniment, in what indeed seems to be an exact transcription of the Whittaker ‘arrangement’ for cello replacing the voice. I note that in his review of this issue Michael Wilkinson states that his review copy came without notes, but I wonder whether any attempt was made to justify what – beyond an understandable desire to increase royalties – prevented a straightforward ascription of the tune as “trad.”
The matter only came to my attention this morning when the BBC introduced a playing of the Kanneh-Mason recording with a specific and complimentary reference to the merits of the arrangement! Although it makes a pleasant contrast, I suppose, to a recording I recall back in the 1970s which unabashedly described Linden Lea as ‘traditional’ without the slightest mention of a certain Ralph Vaughan Williams…
Mind you, I always welcome the chance to hear the beautiful tune of Blow the wind southerly and positively welcome the minimal approach to arrangement that is evident in the two recordings mentioned here!