A programme of 20th century choral settings of Shakespeare’s words. This will include the well-known settings by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and also arrangements by the American composer Matthew Harris whose music cleverly reflects the character and context of each song, with styles ranging from the slow and melancholy to more upbeat or folk-inspired. And, as a special bonus we shall be singing the Shakespeare settings by the late great blind jazz pianist Sir George Shearing, entitled Music to Hear, from the words of Sonnet 8.
The choir will be joined by the Innominata Consort of Recorders who will play pieces by Shakespeare’s contemporaries.
Matthew Harris: Shakespeare Songs, Book 2. Take, O, take those lips away | Tell me where is fancy bred | Under the greenwood tree | Come away, come away, death
Robert Pearsall: Lay a garland
George Shearing: Music to hear. Music to hear | Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? | Is it for fear to wet a widow’s eye? |Sigh no more ladies, sigh no more | Blow, blow thou winter wind
Vaughan Williams: Three Shakespeare Songs. Full fathom five | The cloud capp’d towers | Over hill, over dale
