Eileen Gilligan Flute Daniel Le Piano – Arthur Woodall Berceuse

The Berceuse was recorded because I loved the Serenade so much I went hunting for the Berceuse which I found is in the London Library. Arthur Woodall’s grandson Chris contacted me when he discovered I was hunting for the Berceuse and shared it with me. It is available free to download and enjoy below on this website with the permission of the London Library and the Woodall family.

To my knowledge mine is the only recording so far of this work, hopefully now there will be many more for the world to enjoy.

The Berceuse is short and a challenging little piece in the respect it stops and starts all the way through. Making musical sense of it can be challenging. I found musically it was a conversation and more of a visualisation piece.

The player can treat the phrases as a conversation or question and answer depending on what they say musically to them. It is equally important that the space between phrases is considered so that it does sound like a conversation and has an impromptu feel to it. The piece is not regimented but has a whimsical feel to it.

I chose to treat it this way as well as visualise a spring day walking in the English countryside enjoying the opening spring blossoms, birds chirping and flying between trees, smelling the first of the spring bulbs , chasing butterflies and generally musing at the beauty of nature and life. The final trill for me was definitely a flutter of wings into the distance.There has to be some story and emotion depicted or it may wander and feel flat. It really is quiet difficult to stop and start all the way through a piece. When it came together for me it was very beautiful to play.

I have chosen this piece for The Flautist to teach and practice storytelling as well as enjoy a wonderful new work added to the flute repertoire.

If you are a player or teacher, a piece like this is excellent to hone musicianship and expression skills. Lack of expression doesn’t happen just in studies etc. It happens all too often in expressive pieces that demand nuance, colour and phrasing.

Below are examples of Berceuse’s which follow the traditional concept of a Berceuse being a lullaby or gentle form of composition. This Berceuse doesn’t in my view do this so it really is up to the performer to make something of it.

Arthur Woodall was born November 30, 1873, at 5 Boscobel St, Tipton, Staffordshire, England to Joseph Woodall and his wife Sarah. At the age of 17 he was listed in the census as an ironworker. Ten years later, still single and living with his mother, he described himself as a Professor of Music. Woodall was an active pianist and a conductor of local choirs. conductor of the Brockmoor Male Choir with which he was winner at the Blackpool Music Festival 1911. The first mention found for him in The Musical Times is as an accompanist at a recital in nearby Stourbridge, where he accompanied the well-known flute player, Edward de Jong. It seems that only flautist Edward de Jong could inspire him to compose.Both the Serenade and Berceuse were dedicated to him. Edward de Jong was the editor of Woodall’s Serenade for flute and piano, which was published in 1907 by Rudall Carte in their series the “Flute Players” Journal. In 1910 Rudall Carte published a second Woodall composition, Berceuse, also for flute and piano. Woodall is not known to have had any more music published.

Worthwhile listening to the recordings below to make up one’s own mind as to the musical approach to take.

Berceuse -Faure – Itzhak Perlman -violin

Beneficial exercises to aid performance.