November 17, 2010

Ursula Pank (nee Smith) played also on an old rare Peter Bellamy's composition...

Peter Bellamy

In the wide Peter Bellamy's (1944-1991) discography, a little peculiar place has the "Maritime England Suite", a 40 minutes composition based on songs of the sea from the Saxons to the 19th century, Kipling, traditionals and anon/Bellamy. 
It was produced in 1982 for the BBC  for a proposed radio broadcast titled ‘We have fed our Sea’ and performed by a trio comprising the same Bellamy on voice, Dolly Collins on piano and our Ursula Pank (nee Smith) on cello. 
The composition, never realised as a proper album, existed as a private cassette-only edition with a photocopied cover. As TEB's fan-&-musician Sedayne states, who recommends us this gem, "copies of which are scarce (and those extant are fading fast...) but the music is of a perfect and golden charm". 

"This is a basic transfer of a very old unbranded cassette copy as sold by Peter Bellamy at his gigs. No attempt has been made to clean it up at source (no Dolby certainly!) or otherwise enhance it on the computer other than to fix a patricularly messy edit & fade it out at the end of Part Two which cuts out on the cassette. One hopes the masters are extant and that plans are afoot to release them officially, but as life is generally too short for the awaiting of such miracles, enjoy this in all its lo-fi glory".

Note that in 1999 three tracks have been included on a 3CDs Bellamy's 57 tracks anthology titled "Wake the Vaulted Echoes", edited by Free Reed Records (http://www.free-reed.co.uk/frtcd14), now out of stock.

The tracklist:

(Part One)
1. "Song of the Red War Boat" (Kipling)
2. "Sir Patrick Spens" (Trad)
3. "Sir Andrew Barton" (Anon)
4. "The Spanish Armada" (Anon)
5. "The Zealous Puritan" (Anon)
6. "The Dutch in the Medway" (Kipling)

(Part Two)
1. "We Have Fed Our Sea For a Thousand Years" (Kipling)
2. "Andrew Rose & the Cruel Ship's Captain" (trad.)
3. "The Death of Nelson" (trad.)
4. "The British Man of War" (trad.)
5. "The China Clipper" (Tardiff)

All settings by Peter Bellamy. Arranged by Dolly Collins.

So, waiting for an official full-lenght edition (?!), you can download this pleasant suite at:

no©2010 Luca Ferrari
Edited by Luca Chino Ferrari

7 comments:

  1. Reinhard ZierkeNovember 18, 2010 at 5:43 PM

    Not exactly "just recently". Wake the Vaulted Echoes was issued in 1999 and is out of print for several years now.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Luca Chino FerrariNovember 18, 2010 at 6:26 PM

    Thanks for the correction. I've changed the text.

    ReplyDelete
  3. SedayneNovember 22, 2010 at 12:38 PM

    Here's the ammended tracklist c/o Pip Radish on Mudcat:

    Part One:

    Introduction (instrumental)
    Song of the Red War Boat (Kipling)
    Sir Patrick Spens (traditional (Child 58))
    Sir Andrew Barton (traditional (Child 167))
    The Spanish Armada (J. Keefe (18th century))
    The Zealous Puritan (Anon. (17th century))
    The Dutch in the Medway (Kipling)

    Part Two:

    We Have Fed Our Sea For a Thousand Years (Kipling)
    Andrew Rose & the Cruel Ship's Captain (traditional)
    The Death of Nelson (traditional)
    The British Man of War (traditional)
    You Gentlemen of England (J. Philips (17th century))
    The China Clipper ("K. Tardif" (early 20th century))

    ReplyDelete
  4. Luca Chino FerrariNovember 22, 2010 at 3:05 PM

    Thanks, very thanks for this clarification about the tracklist. It can be of interest for every listeners to have the right philological origins of the material...

    ReplyDelete
  5. SedayneNovember 28, 2010 at 11:09 AM

    There are now higher quality versions available which play at the right speed!

    Reduced hiss:

    Part One : http://tinyurl.com/334qy2s

    Part Two : http://tinyurl.com/3955kpx

    Custom Noise Reduction:

    Part One : http://tinyurl.com/388x9ng

    Part Two : http://tinyurl.com/35lv3w4

    ALSO theres an alternative rehearsal recording which is very heavy with Ursula's cello, including graphics etc.:

    http://www.mediafire.com/?wgked631hk4nmco

    And last but not least there's a short lo-res video clip - the only moving images I've ever seen of Mrs Pank:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY7BtkgI-Qo

    ReplyDelete
  6. Luca Chino FerrariNovember 28, 2010 at 8:17 PM

    Thanks Sedayne! I'll tell to Steve and Ursula...

    ReplyDelete
  7. MircoDecember 10, 2018 at 8:24 PM

    The record has Just been reissued: https://www.folkradio.co.uk/2018/12/peter-bellamy-the-maritime-suite/

    ReplyDelete

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