John Rutter

We heard Musical Heirs Christmas
Concert last night before they leave
for France on Friday. A mission's trip for
these young homeschoolers!
One song in particular makes my heart
sing. Shepherd's Pipe Song was the first
song the British composer John Rutter
had published. He was 18 . He was in the
choir at High Gate, North London. A fellow
classmate, John Tavener, and Rutter then
composed a carol a year. This was in the
1960's!

Rutter now directs The Cambridge Singers.
Google the title of the Carol to hear it!



We love his song about Wind in the Willows!
It makes my husband chuckle! He loves
that book ....and Rat and Mole.

CHAPTER ONE:

THE Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; till he had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms. Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing. It was small wonder, then, that he suddenly flung down his brush on the floor, said `Bother!'

Ernest Shepherd , illustrator of Winnie the Pooh, also did a version on Wind and the
Willow in 1931:

Shepard also did the illustrations for many other books, his most famous work being for Richard Jefferie's Bevis in 1932, and Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, which he did in 1931. In earlier editions, The Wind in the Willows had been illustrated by three different artists, none of which satisfied Grahame. Grahame was not even sure that Shepard could do the job properly when he offered him the work. After seeing Shepard's sketches, though, Grahame was very pleased.


Cover of the first edition