Those Dancing Days Are Gone

Instrumentation

Soprano, Flute, Piano

Other Information

This setting of the poem by W. B. Yeats [see below] was composed in 1970 but revised for its first public performance in 2008. The basic material is the same but the version on the recording on this page is shorter than the original. The performers on the recording are Jenny Saunders [soprano], Clare-Louise Appleby [flute] and Julian Hellaby [piano].

Those Dancing Days Are Gone

by William Butler Yeats

Come, let me sing into your ear;

Those dancing days are gone,

All that silk and satin gear;

Crouch upon a stone,

Wrapping that foul body up

In as foul a rag:

I carry the sun in a golden cup.

The moon in a silver bag.

Curse as you may I sing it through;

What matter if the knave

That the most could pleasure you,

The children that he gave,

Are somewhere sleeping like a top

Under a marble flag?

I carry the sun in a golden cup.

The moon in a silver bag.

I thought it out this very day.

Noon upon the clock,

A man may put pretence away

Who leans upon a stick,

May sing, and sing until he drop,

Whether to maid or hag:

I carry the sun in a golden cup,

The moon in a silver bag.

Jenny Saunders [soprano]

In 1987 Jenny was awarded a Scholarship to attend the Royal Academy of Music to study with Mary Thomas. Whilst at the Academy she won the Ernest Butcher Prize for singing and in 1992 was awarded the Benjamin J. Dale Award. In the same year Jenny won the soprano category in the Great Grimsby International Singers Competition, which gained her the Alec Redshaw Memorial Award. Her operatic career boasts performances at Covent Garden, the Athens festival, Jigsaw Music Theatre, as well as Palace Opera, the Academy of St Martin in the field and the Royal Festival Hall. She has sung all the major classical composers at all the prestigious venues, Mozart’s C Minor Mass at Canterbury Cathedral, Faure’s requiem at the Royal Festival Hall as well as so many others.

Clare-Louise Appleby [flute]

Clare-Louise graduated from Birmingham Conservatoire with a Bmus (Hons) and MA. She has performed with many national orchestras and ensembles including Birmingham Royal Ballet and The Royal Shakespeare Company as well as on television and radio. Clare-Louise is visiting lecturer in flute at the Universities of Warwick, Coventry and Wolverhampton. In December 2005 she was awarded honorary membership of Birmingham Conservatoire in recognition of services to music. She has worked with artists as diverse as Judy Dench and pop star Mika.

Julian Hellaby [piano]

Julian studied with the distinguished British pianist, Denis Matthews, before further training at the Royal Academy of Music under Guy Jonson, where he was awarded several piano prizes. He has performed as solo pianist, concerto soloist, chamber musician and accompanist throughout the UK, Europe, the Middle East and South Africa, including performances in the Wigmore Hall and the Purcell Room, as well as for music clubs and university concert series. More recently, he formed a piano duo partnership with pianist Peter Noke with whom he has performed internationally and carried out two national tours. His university work covers a broad span of undergraduate and postgraduate activities from music history and dissertation supervision (undergraduate, masters and doctoral) through to performance, performance practice and improvisation classes. Julian is an examiner, trainer and moderator for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, and has presented seminars for the Board in Hong Kong, Jakarta, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Turkey and throughout the UK and Ireland. He is also mentor to the Board’s CT ABRSM professional development course and has mentored at the Birmingham, Cambridge, Nottingham, Oxford, Hong Kong and Singapore centres. He has also written several articles of a pedagogical nature for the ABRSM. He has given public lectures for a number of organisations, adjudicated at music festivals and given masterclasses. He also has extensive experience of piano teaching at all levels. His book on musical interpretation was published by Ashgate in 2009.