Arranger(s): Dring, Madeleine
Label: Chandos
Genre: Vocal
Period: 20th Century
Catalogue No: CHAN20390
Barcode: 095115239025
Release Date: 03/2026

DRING, M.: Songs (Through the Centuries) (Whately, Drake)

English mezzo-soprano Kitty Whately presents an album of songs by Madeleine Dring. Born in 1923 to a theatrical family, Dring was admitted to the Royal College of Music at the age of nine. She went on to study composition with Herbert Howells, also taking lessons from Gordon Jacob and Ralph Vaughan Williams. She made her career in the theatre, earning a reputation for being able to create catchy numbers at short notice. Sadly, she died at the early age of fifty-three, of a brain aneurysm. The disparate nature of her musical legacy is often attributed to the piecemeal nature of her career; consequently, resurgence of interest in her work has lagged behind that of her contemporaries Elizabeth Lutyens, Elizabeth Maconchy, Grace Williams, and Ruth Gipps. Kitty Whately and Julius Drake have chosen widely from among her output, and end with Dring’s version of Cole Porter’s ‘In the Still of the Night’.

Tracklist

Dring, Madeleine
Moore, Thomas - Lyricist
Sidney, Philip - Lyricist
Daniel, Samuel - Lyricist
Drayton, Michael - Lyricist
Otway, Thomas - Lyricist
Ellison, Joseph - Lyricist
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
1 6 Songs: No. 2. Love Is a Sickness 03:37
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
2 6 Songs: No. 1. Echoes (How sweet the answer Echo makes) 02:54
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
Dring, Madeleine
Suckling, John - Lyricist
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
3 7 Songs: No. 7. Encouragements to a Lover 01:14
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
Dring, Madeleine
Moore, Thomas - Lyricist
Sidney, Philip - Lyricist
Daniel, Samuel - Lyricist
Drayton, Michael - Lyricist
Otway, Thomas - Lyricist
Ellison, Joseph - Lyricist
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
4 6 Songs: No. 5. The Enchantment 02:08
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
Dring, Madeleine
Aiken, D.F. - Lyricist
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
5 7 Songs: No. 6. Melisande, the Far Away Princess 02:35
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
Dring, Madeleine
Moore, Thomas - Lyricist
Sidney, Philip - Lyricist
Daniel, Samuel - Lyricist
Drayton, Michael - Lyricist
Otway, Thomas - Lyricist
Ellison, Joseph - Lyricist
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
6 6 Songs: No. 3. My True Love Hath My Heart 02:33
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
Dring, Madeleine
Dryden, John - Lyricist
Bateson, Thomas - Lyricist
Sheffield, John - Lyricist
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
7 No. 1. Sister Awake 03:38
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
8 No. 2. Ah, How Sweet It Is to Love 04:37
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
9 No. 3. I Feed a Flame 03:06
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
10 No. 4. The Reconcilement 06:18
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
Dring, Madeleine
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
11 7 Songs: No. 4. Weep You No More Sad Fountains 02:44
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
Dring, Madeleine
Shakespeare, William - Lyricist
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
12 No. 6. The Cuckoo (When daisies pied) 02:07
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
13 No. 5. Take, O Take Those Lips Away 03:21
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
14 No. 4. It was a Lover 02:08
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
Dring, Madeleine
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
15 7 Songs: No. 3. The Faithless Lover (While that the sun with his beams hot) 02:28
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
Dring, Madeleine
Armstrong, Michael - Lyricist
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
16 No. 1. Holding the Night 03:34
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
17 No. 2. Frosty Night 01:59
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
18 No. 3. Through the Centuries 03:44
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
19 No. 4. Separation 03:12
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
Porter, Cole
Dring, Madeleine - Arranger
Porter, Cole - Lyricist
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)
20 Rosalie: In the Still of the Night (arr. M. Dring for voice and piano) 04:07
Whately, Kitty (mezzo-soprano)
Drake, Julius (piano)

Total Playing Time: 01:02:04