Sample Songs

See all my videos at:
www.youtube.com/user/patriciahammondsongs

Listen to samples of my singing:
www.bebo.com/patriciahammond

(For more information on the music of composer Michael Brough, email mbmusic@aol.com.)

CD: Love's Old Sweet Song

Released: June 2007. A CD of Nostalgia, Parlour Song, Parlor Song, call it what you will! Recorded by Richard Carruthers of Music Chamber on the 8th of June, 2007 in London's Holy Trinity Sloane Street, with the fabulous Michael Brough playing his famous Bösendorfer Grand (the 275 with extra notes at the bottom).
Contact me to purchase a copy. £10.

1. Love's Old Sweet Song (James Molloy)
2. Thine Alone (Victor Herbert)
3. Fair House of Joy (Roger Quilter)
4. I'll Walk Beside You (Alan Murray)
5. Kashmiri Love Song (Amy Woodforde-Finden) Also known as Pale Hands I loved beside the Shalimar
6. Panis Angelicus (César Franck)
7. The Honeysuckle and the Bee (William Penn)
8. Fly Home Little Heart (Ivor Novello)
9. Till We Meet Again (Richard Whiting)
10. On Wings of Song (Felix Mendelssohn) duet with soprano Rebecca Rudge
11. My Own (Jimmy McHugh)
12. Play, Fiddle, Play (Altman/Lawrence/Deutsch)

You can hear tracks 2, 7 and 10 on www.bebo.com/patriciahammond

CD: Le Charme

Released at Canada House in October 2003.
Belleville Records BEVI 001 www.bellevillerecords.com
Contact me to purchase a copy. £10.

Sample Tracks... if your computer is agreeable (you may have to wait a wee while), all you need to do is choose any of the little thin grey rectangles next to a track and click on the tiny equilateral triangle pointing to the right. You will then hear an extract from that track.

*First recording

1. L'Heure Exquise (Reynaldo Hahn)

2. Automne (Gabriel Fauré)
3. Soyons Unis (Rhené-Batôn)

4. Fortunio: Chanson de Fortunio (Jacques Offenbach)
5. Chant Hindou (Hermann Bemberg)

6. Clair de Lune (Josef Szulc)

7. Epitaphe (Tivadar Nachèz)*
8. Si tu le veux (Charles Koechlin)
From BERGERETTES arr. Jean-Baptiste Weckerlin
--9. Jeunes Fillettes
--10. Menuet d'Exaudet
--11. Que ne suis-je la fougère
--12. Tambourin

13. Les Feuilles Mortes (Joseph Kosma)

14. Le Charme (Ernst Chausson)
15. Jocelyn: Berceuse (Benjamin Godard)

16. Le Thé (Charles Koechlin)
17. Adieux de l'Hôtesse Arabe (Georges Bizet)
18. Hôtel (Francis Poulenc)
19. Plaintes d'Amour (Cécile Chaminade)

20. Quand l'amour meurt (Octave Crémieux)
21. Les Chemins de l'amour (Cécile Chaminade)
22. Chanson Triste (Henri Duparc)
23. Le Roi d'Ys: Vainement, ma bien-aimée (Edouard Lalo)
24. Plaisir d'Amour (Johann Paul Martini)

FULL TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS (By John Sidgwick, OBE) INCLUDED IN BOOKLET!

Some personal notes to "Le Charme" not included in the booklet due to space restrictions:

'Le Charme' is mainly just a collection of some of my favourite French songs. Because the composers range from Martini, who was born in 1706, to Charles Kosma, who died in 1969, it may appear a somewhat quirky selection. But I thought it would be fun to put 'Les Feuilles Mortes' (Autumn Leaves) in the company of art songs rather than its usual bedfellows - "La Vie en Rose", etc. Kosma's music bears a strong connection to composers like Fauré and Hahn, and the seven chords linking the chorus to the second verse, beautifully written by composer Michael Brough, underline this connection. And at the other end of the time-frame, the charming 18th century Bergerettes, redolent of Watteau-esque landscapes with lute-playing lovers, have a relation to those wistful Belle Epoque romantics, too. And it seemed more musically generous to group all these songs as my own ears liked to hear them, and not chronologically.

The recording also gave me a chance to present a few lesser-knowns, people like Josef Szulc and Hermann Bemberg and Tivadar Nachèz. The latter's song, 'Epitaphe', has never, to my knowledge, been recorded before. Neither has Chaminade's 'Plaintes d'Amour'.

I discovered a number of these songs when I was a girl, an avid collector of vintage sheet music. In those days I collected mostly for the decorative covers, and the joy of possessing something that was antique and yet still affordable to the average nine-year-old. But soon I found that the music behind the covers could be very good, and thus began discoveries of songs by Tivadar Nachèz, Cécile Chaminade, Sigurd Lie, Charles Villiers Stanford, Jimmy McHugh... And now, having grown up a singer, it is a great feeling to be giving these dusty and flaking song sheets from my childhood something of an audience.

I'd like to say that the title of the disc is not just BelleVille Records telling the world that Zoë and I are charming (though we are!), but means 'Enchantment'. In the context of the majority of the songs here, 'Le Charme' refers to the seductive nature of sadness, which so many poets and composers have used to wonderful effect. The maiden in 'Chant Hindou', for example, is letting her tears fall into the sacred river to try to bring back her dead lover, but the music is extremely voluptuous. 'Les Feuilles Mortes' is gorgeous enough to lure back any lost lover. And of course the message of the title track is 'I knew I loved you when I saw your first tear.'

BONUS LISTENING SAMPLE from 2002:
1. Hence Iris, hence away! (excerpt) from Handel's Semele - Recorded live at the Frome Festival, July 2002. Helen Collyer, piano