Fourteen-year-old William Walton composed three versions of his setting of Phineas Fletcher's poem Drop, Slow Tears and this version for treble voices is apparently the first . . . Some of the revoicing of chords necessiated by the smaller range creates luminous effects. For choirs able to navigate the tonal challenges, this may become the preferred setting.
Sir William Walton was born in Oldham, Lancashire in 1902, the son of a choirmaster and a singing-teacher. He became a chorister at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, and then an undergraduate at the University. His first composition to attract attention was a piano quartet written at the age of sixteen. At Oxford he made the acquaintance of the Sitwells who gave him friendship, moral and financial support and in 1922 he collaborated with Edith in devising the
entertainment Belshazzar's Feast. From 1922 to 1927 Walton began to spend an increasing amount of time abroad, notably in Switzerland and Italy. The war years were devoted mainly to writing film and ballet scores and he became established as amongst the greatest composers for the
screen.
