3 English Songs

The Mermaid’s Song (1794)

The Spirit’s Song (1794-5)

O Tuneful Voice (1795)

One of Haydn’s best friends in London was the poet Anne Hunter who, recently widowed by the sudden death of her distinguished surgeon husband, collaborated with the composer on the two sets of Original Canzonettas he completed on his second visit to this country in 1794 and 1795. She wrote all six texts for the first set and compiled those of the second from various sources, selecting just one of her own in this case. It is a clear from the elaborate piano introduction and the quality of the melodic line of The Mermaid’s Song, the first item in the first set, that this was a serious project for Haydn. Even so, the most impressive of his English songs are two Hunter settings not included in the Original Canzonettas. The Spirit’s Song is remarkable for the sombre atmosphere and sepulchral utterances of its first and last stanzas and O Tuneful Voice - which, interestingly, was not published until ten years later - is a surprisingly passionate reciprocation of the sentiments expressed in a text written to mark the parting of composer and poet in 1795.