2.Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal

"Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal," the second of Three Songs, Op. 3, did much to further the early reputation of the English composer Roger Quilter. The famed English tenor Gervase Elwes was so enamored of Quilter's setting of this Tennyson poem that he personally convinced the Boosey publishing house to print it. Elwes became one of the composer's most important champions, but this song actually predated any creative contact between the two—it was composed well before its publication date of 1904 and was actually first written when the composer was 20, in 1897.

Quilter's indication of tempo rubato was to become a frequent trait, as was his use of a modified strophic form. While "Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal" can be traced to the English tradition of the drawing-room ballad, it is Quilter's lush accompaniment that distinguishes it from its less urbane predecessors. Only during important melodic moments does the accompaniment reiterate the vocal melody; indeed, often the piano spins out charmingly brief melodic lines of its own. That Quilter was later to arrange the accompaniment for strings seems more than appropriate.

The vocal writing is perhaps best described as inevitable. Where Tennyson's lines peak and contract, so does the melodic line; where the poetic accents fall, so too do the rhythmic pulses. Quilter's use of rubato smoothes out his juxtaposition of three- and five-beat measures, and makes the chromatic harmonies more natural. Also characteristic of his later work is his avoidance of a perfect authentic cadence at the conclusion of the song. "Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal," indeed all of the Op. 3 songs, begins to bring into relief the talents a composer who would be reluctant to set contemporary poetry, as his restrained, always tonal style was best suited to the setting of earlier works. This fleetingly brief (27-measure) song shows that its composer was soon to become, if he was not already, a master of the craft of the art song.

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