Voice
PLEASE
If Music Be the Food of Love
JANUARY
NOTE
The taking of photographs and the use of
recording equipment of any kind during
performances is strictly prohibited
Thursday 28, 8:00pm
St. Peter’s Church, St. George’s
Programme
Light
Marcus Davidson (2014)
The Water of Tyne Traditional England
arr. Victoria Couper (2012)
O Waly, Waly Traditional England
arr. Clemmie Franks (2014)
I love my love
Traditional England
arr. Clemmie Franks (2014)
Salve Regina
Jocelyn Hagen (2008)
Wanting Helen Chadwick (2014)
Bien m’ont Amours entrepris Anon., France (13th C)
arr. Emily Burn (2014)
S’on me regarde/Prennés i garde/HÉ MI ENFANT Anon., France (13th C)
I Lov’d thee Mr. Battishill (18th C)
Trust me my Celia Sigr. Giardini (18th C)
on cricket, sex and housework
Ayanna Witter-Johnson (2014)
just in case
Ayanna Witter-Johnson (2014)
Happy Song
Stevie Wishart (2014)
Intermission
How Sweetly You Burn Favus distillans Azeruz My love is like a red, red rose Lowlands of Holland Love and Gallantry O Mistress Mine It was a Lover and his Lass The Dig Dag Song Emily Levy (2014)
Hildegard of Bingen (12thC)
Stevie Wishart (2001)
Traditional Scotland
arr. Emily Burn (2012)
Traditional Britain
arr. Emily Burn (2014)
Anon., England (c.1600)
arr. Victoria Couper (2011), revised (2014)
Anon., England (c.17th C)
arr. Victoria Couper (2014)
Thomas Morley (17th C)
arr. Victoria Couper (2014)
Virginia Firnberg (1997)
visit www.bermudafestival.org for more information
About the performers
Emily Burn, Victoria Couper, and Clemmie Franks, the unique female vocal trio known
as Voice, present If Music Be the Food of Love - a programme of songs that explore the
beauty, heartache, and humour of love. The trio explore repertoire that is diverse yet
complementary, encompassing music from medieval France and Germany, 18th century
catches, and arrangements of Shakespearean and traditional songs from England and
Scotland. Voice also commissioned five new works for the programme by five British
composers.
Formed in 2006, Voice is a regular collaborator with composers, musicians, artists,
and poets. Over the years, they have devised and commissioned a number of unique
and exciting projects which they have performed at festivals and venues across the UK,
Europe, and the USA.
In 2013, they launched their debut album Musical Harmony “...a stunning body of work
destined to prick up the hairs on the back of one’s neck” Tim Hughes (Oxford Times
& Mail).
Voice collaborate regularly with composers, musicians, artists, and poets, performing
at festivals across the UK and Europe. In 2013 they made their debut performance in
Bucharest as part of EUROPAfest, in Brussels at La Chappelle de Verre, and completed
their first US tour. In 2014 Voice toured the UK with their programme Patterns of Love.
In 2015 Voice collaborated with the Dufay Collective on the English Medieval album I
Have Set My Hert So Hy [released on Avie July2015], and also self-released their second
album Patterns of Love in the Autumn, featuring live on BBC Radio 3 In Tune with Sean
Rafferty, described as “ beautifully rounded ”.
Later this year Voice look forward to performing in Janacek’s ‘Diary of one who
disappeared’ with Julius Drake, Mark Padmore, and Anna Reinhold at West Cork Chamber
Music Festival in Ireland, and plan to record a new album of medieval repertoire for
release later in the year.
Commissioned composers:
Helen Chadwick: performance creator, singer, and composer. Works: The Singing
Circle and Dalston Songs for the Royal Opera House; nine albums; composed for English
Touring Opera, the BBC, Tete a Tete Opera Company, Salisbury Cathedral, Greenwich
Festival, National Theatre, and RSC. www.helenchadwick.com
Marcus Davidson: composer, organist. Works: The Passing, recorded at Kontraste
Festival, Austria 2013; Bee Symphony, a collaboration with Chris Watson; Ananta,
recorded at Bergen Autunnale Festival 2013, all released on the Touch label. Marcus has
composed four pieces for Voice to date. www.marcusdavidson.net
Emily Levy: singer, songwriter, composer. Works: ‘A Mix-Tape for Gus’ BBC Radio 4;
‘Unending Sky’ Oxford Youth Choirs; ‘At the Still Point’ with Cecilia Macfarlane and Lee
Fisher, Birmingham Royal Ballet; ‘Amergin’s Song’ Oxford Youth Dance Co; ‘Suspension’
Crossover Intergenerational Dance Co; ‘Lost and Found’ Solo Album.
www.emilylevy.co.uk
Stevie Wishart: composer, performer, and improviser. Explores medieval and
contemporary extremes. Leader of Sinfonye, which Voice are members of. Recent
projects: “Out of this World” for 2011 BBC Proms; “Vespers for St Hildegard”, premiered
2013 York Early Music Festival. www.loganartsmanagement.com/stevie-wishart.html
Ayanna Witter-Johnson: composer, vocalist, cellist, and pianist. A prolific
songwriter and extraordinary performer, she is a MOBO nominee and the only nonAmerican to win Amateur Night Live at the Apollo Theater, Harlem. She has composed
and arranged for the London Symphony Orchestra, Hugh Masekela & the BBC Symphony
Orchestra, Kronos String Quartet, and was commissioned by Joanna MacGregor for
Bath Festival. She has also worked and toured with Nitin Sawhney, Courtney Pine, and
Anoushka Shankar. www.ayannamusic.com
Voice would like to thank Arts Council England and private donors for their support
with commissioning the new works featured in this programme.
About the programme
Light Marcus Davidson for Voice (2014)
Text by Elizabeth Jennings (1926 – 2001)
By Permission of David Higham Associates Limited
To touch was an accord
Between life and life;
Later we said the word
And felt the arrival of love
And enemies moving off
A little part we are,
Still aware, still aware
Light changes, and shifts.
O slowly the light lifts
To show one star
And the darkness we were.
The Water of Tyne Traditional England, arr. Victoria Couper for Voice (2012)
I cannot get to my love if I would dee
The water of Tyne runs between him and me
And here I must stand with a tear in my e’e
Both sighing and dying my sweetheart to see
Oh where is the boatman my bonny hinny
Oh where is the boatman bring him to me
To ferry me over the Tyne to my hinny
And I will remember the boatman and thee
Oh bring me a boat I will give any money
And you for your trouble rewarded shall be
To ferry me over the Tyne to my honey
Or skull him across the rough water to me
I cannot get to my love if I would dee
The water of Tyne runs between him and me
And here I must stand with a tear in my e’e
Both sighing and dying my sweetheart to see
O Waly, Waly Traditional England, arr. Clemmie Franks for Voice (2014)
This arrangement uses the tune published by Cecil Sharp and Charles Marson in
Folk Songs From Somerset (1906) created from an amalgamation of Elizabethan
broadsheet lyrics and field recordings.
The water is wide I cannot get o’er
And neither have I wings to fly
Give me a boat that will carry two
And both shall row my love and I.
Oh down in the meadows the other day
A-gathering flowers both fine and gay
A-gathering flowers both red and blue
A little thought what love can do.
I leaned my back up against some oak
Thinking that he was a trusty tree
But first he bended and then he broke
And so did my false love to me.
A ship there is and she sails the sea
She’s loaded deep, as deep can be
But not so deep as the love I’m in
I know not if I sink or swim.
O, love is handsome and love is kind
And love’s a jewel while it is new
But when it is old, it groweth cold
And fades away like morning dew.
I love my love Traditional England, arr. Clemmie Franks for Voice (2014)
Traditional Cornish melody collected by George Barnet Gardiner (1852-1910). A tale
of separated lovers, who are only reunited once Nancy has been sent into Bedlam Bethlem Royal Hospital, notorious for the extreme treatment of mental illnesses.
Abroad as I was walking one evening in the spring,
I saw a maid in Bedlam so sweetly for to sing
Her chains she rattled with her hands and thus replied she:
“I love my love because I know my love loves me.”
“O cruel were his parents who sent my love to sea
And cruel was the ship that bore my love from me;
Yet I love his parents since they’re his although they’ve ruined me:
I love my love because I know, my love loves me.”
Just as she sat there weeping, her love he came on land,
Then, hearing she was in Bedlam, he ran straight out of hand;
He flew into her snow white arms, and thus replied he:
“I love my love because I know my love loves me.”
She said; “My love don’t frighten me; are you my love or no?”
“O yes, my dearest Nancy, I am your love, also
I am returned to make amends for all your injury;
I love my love because I know my love loves me”
So now these two are married, and happy they may be
Like turtle doves together, in love and unity
All pretty maids with patience wait that have got loves at sea;
I love my love because I know my love loves me.
Salve Regina Jocelyn Hagen (2008)
Text Anon. (c.12 thC)
Hail holy queen, Mother of mercy,
Our life, our sweetness, and our hope.
To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve.
To thee do we send up our sighs,
Mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.
Turn then, most gracious Advocate,
Thine eyes of mercy toward us.
And after this our exile show unto us
The blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
O clement, O loving,
O sweet Virgin Mary.
Wanting Helen Chadwick for Voice (2014)
Text by Erick Fried translated by Gunter Ehweiner
Wanting to be with you
In the middle of what I’m doing
Wanting to be gone
Lost within you
Lost within you
Wanting and wanting...
Nothing but with you
Closer than hand to hand
More intimate than lips to lips
Wanting to be with you
Wanting to be with you
Wanting and wanting...
Being tender within you
Kissing you from the inside
And caressing you from within
Caressing you this and that way
And also differently
Caressing you from within
Wanting and wanting...
Wanting to inhale you
Nothing but inhaling
Deeper, deeper
And to drink without exhaling
Drink
Wanting and wanting...
And while doing so
Searching the distance to see you
Just two hands away
And then kiss you again.
Bien m’ont Amours entrepris Anon., France (13th C) arr. Emily Burn for Voice (2014)
Motet taken from Songs of the Troubadours and Trouveres: an anthology of poems and
melodies, eds. Rosenberg, Switten, Le Vot (1998) Garland Publishers London.
Love has taken hold of me,
I think I cannot last,
For at night, when I should sleep
And I expect to rest
I find myself tossing and turning,
Shivering and trembling,
So gripped am I
By desire and brooding.
S’on me regarde/Prennés i garde/HÉ MI ENFANT Anon., France (13th C)
Motet from the Montpellier Codex
Triplum: If someone sees me,
Motetus: Take care
if someone sees me,
tell me;
I am too bold
I see it well.
I cannot but let my
eyes wonder
for a certain one looks at me
for which I am very impatient
that I am where he is
so that he has in faith
the full gift of my love.
But I see that one
who is, I believe,
(hellfire burn him!)
jealous of me.
But not for him
Will I renounce loving,
for by my faith
he watches me for nothing,
he wastes his time:
I will have an escape!
if someone sees me;
I am too bold,
tell me,
for God’s sake I beg you.
For a certain one looks at me,
for which I am very impatient,
that I am where he is
I see it well;
and I see that one
who is, I believe,
(hellfire burn him!)
jealous of me.
But not for him
will I renounce loving,
he watches me for nothing,
he wastes his time:
I will have an escape,
and the wooing of my lover.
I must do it!
I will no longer be cowardly.
Tenor: Ah, my child
I Lov’d thee Mr. Battishill (18th C)
From A Collection of Catches Canons and Glees selected
by Thomas Warren first published 1762-1793
I Lov’d thee beautifull and Kind
And plighted an eternal Vow
So alter’d are thy Face and Mind
‘Twere Perjury to love thee now.
Trust me my Celia Sigr. Giardini (18th C)
From A Collection of Catches Canons and Glees selected
by Thomas Warren first published 1762-1793
Trust me my Celia you will find,
We were for Love by Heav’n design’d
‘Tis the Arabian Bird alone,
Is chaste because there is but One
The Bird is chaste because there is but One
But shou’d Dame Nature e’er make Two,
They wou’d like Doves and Sparrows do
on cricket, sex and housework Ayanna Witter-Johnson for Voice (2014)
Text by Jean “Binta” Breeze
I have never loved ironing
but something softens the crease
and although I played it straight, I fell to your googly
I came out slightly crinkly
perhaps it’s the strange things your fingers do around my seams
just in case Ayanna Witter-Johnson for Voice (2014)
Text by Jean “Binta” Breeze
and just in case you ever wonder
if I am the passing summer’s sun
and if a winter night of doubt should wake you
and you think I am the snow that’s suddenly gone
just in case
and if on lonely mornings you look up
and think I am a drifting cloud
that drops its rain and mist-like disappears
and if you ever think some passing storm of frenzy
could wipe out all the pages of our days
just give me time my love
to come again
and touch you with forever
Happy Song Stevie Wishart for Voice (2014)
Joy!
Alegre, Beato
Chanceux joyeux, agreable.
Delight, enchanted, joyous, delectable, delicious.
Overflowing mirth, bountiful beauty, delectable, entrancing
Fortunatus.
Felice.
INTERMISSION
How Sweetly You Burn Emily Levy for Voice (2014)
Text after Hildegard of Bingen from her Ordo Virtutum (Play of Virtues) - speech and
chorus. Believed by some scholars to be written as a memorial to Richardis, close friend
and member of Hildegard’s order, following her untimely death.
Oh friend you stand in the royal bridal chamber,
Oh how tenderly you burn in the King’s embraces.
When the sun shines through you
So that your noble flower shall never wilt.
Oh noble friend no shade will ever find your flower drooping.
The flower of the field falls before the wind.
The rain scatters its petals.
Oh friend, you abide forever
In the chorus of the company of heaven.
Hence, you are a tender flower that shall never fade.
Favus distillans Hildegard of Bingen (12thC)
From the Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum
A dripping honeycomb was the virgin Ursula,
who longed to embrace the Lamb of God,
Honey and milk under her tongue,
an orchard of fruit trees
and blossoming flowers
among the crowd of virgins
gathered all around her.
Azeruz Stevie Wishart (2001)
Text Hildegard’s Lingua Ignota
Lingua ignota
English
AnzizCowbane
Marizma
Common centaury
ZizriaCinnamon
SparinichibusAlmond
AzeruzHemp
Magizima
Black hellebore
ZizanzBriar
Gusca
Lesser celandine
Dizia
Burning bush
MazmaVetch
PaziaHenbane
CririschiaLaurel
Mikoziz
Garden radish
LaufricaColtsfoot
FulziaMarigold
Florisca
Seed of the balsam
GimeldiaPine
My love is like a red, red rose Traditional Scotland, arr. Emily Burn for Voice (2012)
Text by Robert Burns
My love is like a red, red rose that’s newly sprung in June
Oh my love is like a melody that’s sweetly played in tune.
As fair art thou my bonny lass, so deep in love am I
And I will love thee still my dear ‘til all the seas gang dry.
‘Til all the seas gang dry my dear and the rocks melt with the sun
And I will love thee still my dear ‘while the sands of life shall run
But fare thee well my only love, oh fare thee well a while
And I shall come again my love tho’ ‘twere ten thousand mile
Lowlands of Holland Traditional Britain, arr. Emily Burn for Voice (2014)
Possibly from Scotland, but sung all over the British Isles. A wife tells of losing her
husband who is pressed into the navy to fight in the Anglo-Dutch wars (17/18th C)
On the night that I was married and on my marriage bed.
There came a bold sea captain who stood at my bedstead
Cryin’ “Arise arise young married man this night and go with me,
To the low lowlands of Holland to fight the enemy.”
I held my love all in my arms still thinking he might stay
But the captain he gave another order, he was forced to march away.
Cryin’ “There’s many a blithe young married man this night must go with me,
To the low lowlands of Holland to fight the enemy.”
Oh Holland is a wondrous place and in it grows much green.
‘Tis a wild inhabitation for me true love to be in.
Where the grass do grow and the warm winds blow and there’s fruit on every tree
But the low lowlands of Holland parted me love ‘n’ me.
No shoe nor stocking I’ll put on, no comb goes through my hair.
Nor shall no coal nor candlelight burn in my bower fair.
Nor will I lie with any young man until the day I die.
For the low lowlands of Holland parted me love ‘n’ I.
Love and Gallantry
OR A noble seaman’s last adieu to his mistris, at the time of his being unfortunately
drowned in the last engagement with the Dutch. With her passionate answer thereunto.
To the Tune of, Farewel my Calista / Robin Anon., England (c.1600), arr. Victoria Couper
for Voice (2011), revised (2014). A Broadside originally printed for Phillip Brooksby, in
West-smith-field. Now found in Roxburghe 3.236 in the British Library.
Farewel my Clarinda my life and my soul,
I am plunged in the sea and on surges must rowl
Severe is my Fate, yet the waves do not blame,
Though they drown me they cannot extinguish my flame
In vain for thy safety, with vows and with prayers,
Have I interceded and bribd heavens ears,
Our death as our life, such a sympathy bears,
You are drowned in the Ocean, and I in my tears.
If the Waves to the shoar my dead body shall bear,
And thy fair Eyes come to Embalmt with a tear,
For who would not dye if sure he could be,
But after his death to be loved by thee
Farewell loathsome life, for I only will stay,
Once more to embrace these dear reliques of clay:
To seal his cold lips with a languishing kiss,
And tell him I come to be his partner in Bliss,
Then decently laid in his Grave, from my eyes
A deluge of water shall presently rise:
Whose high swelling Billows to Heaven being Hurld,
Shall waft my soul o’er into a new world.
O Mistress Mine Anon., England (c.17th C), arr. Victoria Couper for Voice (2014)
Shakespeare reference: Twelfth Night (2.3). There are three contemporary settings of
this text by William Byrd, Thomas Morley, and John Gamble. Since in each of these the
melody line is only very slightly different in layout and structure it can be assumed that
it was possibly a contemporary folk tune of the time. Here, as Ross Duffin suggests in
Shakespeare’s Songbook (2004), the melodic phrases have been arranged to fit fluidly
with the metre of Shakespeare’s original text.
O Mistress mine where are you roaming,
O stay and hear your true love’s coming,
that can sing both high and low.
Trip no further pretty sweeting,
Journey’s end in lovers’ meeting,
Ev’ry wise man’s son doth know.
What is love ‘tis not hereafter,
Present mirth, hath present laughter:
What’s to come is still unsure.
In delay there lies no plenty,
Then come kiss me sweet and twenty:
Youth’s a stuff will not endure.
It was a Lover and his Lass Thomas Morley (17th C)
arr. Victoria Couper for Voice (2014)
Shakespeare reference: As You Like It (5.3). This arrangement is based on Morley’s
original setting written for the play.
It was a lover and his lass,
With a haye, with a hoe and a haye nonie no and a haye nonie nonie no,
That o’er the green cornfields did passe
In spring time, in spring time, in spring time,
The only preti ring time whe birds do sing,
Hay ding a-ding a-ding, hay ding a-ding a-ding, hay ding a-ding a-ding,
Sweete lovers love the springe
In spring time, in spring time.
The only preti ring time when birds do sing,
Haye ding a-ding a-ding, haye ding a-ding a-ding, haye ding a-ding a-ding,
sweete lovers love the spring.
Betweene the Akers of the rie,
With a haye...
These prettie Countrie fooles would lie,
In spring time...
This Carrell they began that houre,
With a haye...
How that a life was but a flower,
In spring time...
Then pretie lovers take the time,
With a haye...
For love is crowned with the prime,
In spring time...
The Dig Dag Song Virginia Firnberg (1997)
This piece was inspired by Amer-Indian ‘Inter Tribal’ songs where words and
syllables are taken out of context and subsequently lose their original meaning
while simultaneously giving people from all backgrounds a way to connect with both
the music and the sounds of the lyrics.
visit www.bermudafestival.org for more information