In the first set of Peterisms, A Sad Song is sandwiched between the skippingly spirited Chopcherry and the raucous Rutterkin. Ian Copley, in The Music of Peter Warlock: A Critical Survey (London: Dobson, 1979), noted, "For generations born since the First World War, the point of Warlock's grouping certain of his songs (especially those of a lighter sort) under the heading of Peterisms has been lost. It appears that a well-known firm of brewers had created an errand-boy character named Peter, who, from time to time, gave tongue to amusingly perky sayings (in their advertisements) which were headed Peterisms. These appealed to Warlock's sense of fun, and he adopted the title as a suitable collective noun to cover some of his own more frivolous items." Composed in 1922, A Sad Song is anything but frivolous, setting Aspatia's song from The Maid's Tragedy (ca. 1609-1619) by the Jacobean team of Beaumont and Fletcher, though the lyric is by Warlock favorite John Fletcher. In these poignant lines—"My love was false, but I was firm, From my hour of birth. Upon my buried body lie Lightly, gentle earth"—Warlock seems to have felt the crux of the entire drama of lovers mismatched and driven to suicide. In 6/8 and marked to be played "With a gentle lilt," this gracefully despairing croon may initially seem reticent, though repeated hearing reveals its pathos with its charm. Warlock, who so often took an intense dislike to some of his best songs, set great store by A Sad Song, arranging it not only for voice and string quartet, in the year of its composition, but as the first of two songs for soprano voice and small orchestra, with Pretty Ring Time, during the Eynsford period (1925-1928). The scoring, for one each of flute, oboe, B flat clarinet, bassoon, horn in F, and strings (absent double-basses) transparently projects the accompaniment while allowing some deft recomposition highlighting the maiden's plaint. Though complete and detailed, the manuscript bears conductor's marks, suggesting at least one performance, and indications that it was being used as the basis of another arrangement for string orchestra before being laid aside and forgotten. Unfortunately, it remains in manuscript, underlining, once again, the need for dedicated editorial work, underwritten by a committed publisher, for Warlock's oeuvre. It is unconscionable that one of the glories of English song should lack the sort of devotion that Warlock, himself, visited upon English music of the Jacobean and Elizabethan eras.

© Adrian Corleonis, Rovi