We'll to the Woods No More (John Ireland)

We'll to the Woods No More is a song cycle for voice and piano composed in 1928 by John Ireland. It consists of settings of two poems by A. E. Housman (1859–1936) and a concluding piece for solo piano named after a third.[1]

A performance takes about 8 minutes. The poems are:[2]

  1. "We'll to the Woods No More" (Last Poems (1922), unnumbered preface)
  2. "In Boyhood" ("When I would muse in boyhood"; Last Poems, No. XXXII)
  3. "Spring Will Not Wait" ("'Tis time, I think, by Wenlock town"; A Shropshire Lad (1896), No. XXXIX)

John France has written, "The mood of this cycle is typically a deep sense of the fragility of life, love and friendship that so influenced both men."[3] Rob Barnett has written of the piano piece "Spring Will Not Wait" that, "It is in Ireland’s typically elusive, wanderingly ambivalent tonal palette."[4]

References

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  1. ^ "List of works – T to Y". The John Ireland Trust. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
  2. ^ "We'll to the woods no more: Song Cycle by John (Nicholson) Ireland (1879–1962)". recmusic.org. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
  3. ^ France, John. "John Ireland (1879–1972): The Songs". musicweb-international.com. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
  4. ^ Barnett, Rob. "John Ireland (1879–1972): The Songs". musicweb-international.com. Retrieved 29 April 2015.