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Nic and Ruth Carlyle commissioned these song settings of poems by L.M. Montgomery as a tribute to Montgomery, marking the 150th anniversary of her birth. We were delighted to have the songs included by the L.M. Montgomery Institute of Prince Edward Island, Canada, into the #Maud150 celebrations.
L.M. Montgomery, or Lucy Maud Montgomery in full, was a Canadian writer. She is best known for the Anne of Green Gables series of novels, but also wrote short stories and published over 500 poems. The poems set to music here were all selected by Montgomery to be included in her 1916 poetry collection The Watchman and Other Poems. The poems are all quite lyrical and much of the language reflects her love of 19th century British poetry. The poems also present whimsical and colourful images of the natural world that will be familiar to readers of Montgomery’s novels.
The song settings are all for voice and piano and recorded by Ruth Carlyle (voice) and David Barton (piano). The first two song settings in the set are by David Barton, ‘The Old Home Calls’ and ‘Come, Rest Awhile’. These are followed by settings by Tim Knight of ‘In An Old Town Garden’ and ‘A Request’.
The title poem for the collection was closely associated with Montgomery in her lifetime. In announcing the death of the author in 1942, the Saturday Review quoted the closing verse of ‘The Old Home Calls’ and described the poem as evoking ‘the spirit of her work’.
Montgomery was proud of her Scottish heritage and this is reflected instinctively by the composers in the lilt of the settings.