Composers › William Walton › Programme note
3 Songs from The Lord Mayor’s Table (1962)
The Lord Mayor’s Table
Wapping Old Stairs
Rhyme
When the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths was thinking about commissioning a new work for the 1962 City of London Festival William Walton was the natural choice. As his literary collaborator Christopher Hassall knew in putting together the texts for a cycle of six songs under the title A Song for the Lord Mayor’s Table, Walton would respond readily to the liveried lustre of a civic occasion – as, indeed, he does in his brilliantly London-pride setting of the Thomas Jordan verses cleverly chosen to open the cycle. While appealing to other sides of the composer’s creative personality (in texts for songs not included in this selection), Hassall tended to favour the extrovert Walton, encouraging his gift for comic characterisation in Wapping Old Stairs and his taste for festive sonority in the anonymous Rhyme.
From Gerald Larner’s files: “Lord Mayor's Table 1,3,6.rtf”