Radical Songs of the Seasons – 1845
Wednesday 1st January 2025
“Free Trade Songs”
by
Eliza Flower (1803 – 1846)
for the League Bazaar 1845
recorded by
Frances M Lynch – Soprano
Laurence Panter – Tenor & Piano
at Conway Hall, London
This will be followed throughout the month of January by a radical new song cycle
inspired by Eliza Flower’s “Free Trade Songs”
Commissioned by
ELECTRIC VOICE THEATRE
Composed by
Frances M Lynch, Anna Appleby, Lilly Vadaneaux, Amanda Johnson
“Seasons of Change” (2023)
Check back on Jan 8th for Spring, 15th for Summer, 22nd Autumn and 30th for Winter
Eliza Flower (1803 – 1846)
“Free Trade Songs” was written with her sister, Sarah Flower Adams, for the Anti Corn Law League Bazaar at Covent Garden in 1845. This radical song cycle confronts the listener with the realities of life for the poor workers on the land, taking their message into the parlours and music rooms of middle and upper-class homes. It ends with an unexpected chorus chanting “Free corn is coming yet!”
ArtElspeth 2024
The Flower Composers
Frances M Lynch, Anna Appleby, Lilly Vadaneaux, Amanda Johnson
“Seasons of Change” is a very different song cycle inspired by Flower’s “Free Trade Songs of the Seasons”. Electric Voice Theatre commissioned the four Flower Composers who worked together to create a song cycle reflecting both the seasons and the politics of power and poverty in the shadow of environmental crisis.
