There is no-one who dislikes metronomes more than I do, but if the singer works according to the recommendations, Mr. Wilcher's songs work extremely well. They are not vocally difficult, although some singers may have a problem in this song, with the upward leap from E flat 4 to B flat 5 on an "ee" vowel, until the piece is sung into the voice. I had no difficulty with it, and like so much of Mr.Wilcher's music, it is very singable indeed. The piano part is not as difficult as it first seems, even though the leger lines in the left hand involved my wife in a counting match, all the while muttering strange Presbyterian oaths. But even Benjamin Britten wrote through many leger lines, notably in his setting of The Ploughboy, so who's complaining?
Henry Howell
Review source: Music Teacher Magazine, Vol. 11 No. 1
