The Old Ships

James Elroy Flecker (E)

This extensive setting is perhaps more familiar in it’s orchestral guise as part of the Mediterranean Songs of 1957-58. It was originally composed some five years earlier, however, as an independent song for voice and piano. Goldschmidt’s ability to absorb the subtle nuances of the English language is clearly in evidence in this rich and highly expressive song which can be effectively paired in performance with his setting of Rupert Brooke’s Clouds, composed two years earlier.