WORLD PREMIERE: CELEBRATING
SHAKESPEARE’S 400TH ANNIVERSARY
AND VALENTINES DAY!
“O, know,
sweet love,
I always write
of you”
by Hollis Thoms
texts by William Shakespeare and Jacqueline Thoms
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Joy Reigns Lutheran Church, 35 Mayo Road, Edgewater, Maryland
Saturday, February 13, 7:00 pm
The World Premiere of opera by Hollis Thoms
with texts by William Shakespeare and the early love letters of Jacqueline Thoms
and projections of Pre-Raphaelite Paintings
“O, know, sweet love, I always write of you”
and
Songs from Twelfth Night by Garth Baxter
Program
Brief talk by Hollis Thoms on the composing of his opera
“O, know, sweet love, I always write of you”
Part 1: Summer of 1968
Treva Foss, soprano
Jason Thoms, baritone
Sonja (Thoms) Winkler, conductor
Melina Gajger, violin
Alexandra Van de Geijn, viola
Gretchen Gettes, cello
Broc Merz, string bass
*****
10 minute Intermission-during intermission feel free to look at the exhibit of articles and books about
Shakespeare from Hollis Thoms’ old and rare book collection (Please do not touch the exhibit)
Four Songs from Twelfth Night
Jacqueline Thoms, soprano
Danielle Cumming, guitar
Garth Baxter
*****
“O, know, sweet love, I always write of you”
Part 2: Winter 1968
A reception of Valentine’s Day sweets will follow the concert
Special thanks to Pastor Sara Yotter and Joy Reigns Lutheran Church for the use of the fellowship hall for
the concert. Also, special thanks to Bob Yatsuk for his technical assistance and expertise.
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Program Notes
“O, know, sweet love, I only write of you” (2010) an opera in two parts for soprano, baritone and a
string quartet of violin, viola, cello and string bass was written while Hollis Thoms was doing research at
the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC.
The opera is the first of three projects he worked on while doing research at the Folger. In preparation
for writing the opera, the composer looked at the various musical settings of Shakespeare’s sonnets in
the Folger collection. In addition he spent time doing research into the many interpretations of the
sonnet cycle throughout the centuries. During this time he came upon a box in his basement of old
letters that he had kept over the years and found a collection of love letters written by his wife,
Jacqueline, during the summer and winter of 1968, when they were going together before they became
engaged to be married. He edited them as texts to be set to music and took the narrative of those
letters over those months as the basis for selecting a cycle of thirteen sonnets of Shakespeare to be
interspersed throughout the love letters as the libretto for the opera. He then wrote the music for the
opera. Throughout the opera, the love letters are set off by pizzicato in the strings, imitating a guitar, as
a simple accompaniment to the soprano voice and the love letters.
The love journey in the opera is an everywoman’s (and man’s) love journey, going from the physical to
the spiritual and from the immediate to the eternal. The title of the opera is taken from Sonnet 76.
Jacqueline wrote the love letters and Hollis wrote the music, and both are intertwined in their
expression of love. Hollis and Jacqueline are celebrating their 45th anniversary of marriage this year and
this opera is their testament of love for each other. It is premiered to celebrate Shakespeare’s 400th
anniversary and Valentine’s Day Weekend.
Bios
Composer, educator and researcher Hollis Thoms has written over 125 works for a variety of
ensembles. He has a MM in composition from Northwestern University and finished the course work for
the PhD in composition at the Eastman School of Music. His principal teachers were Richard Hillert, M.
William Karlins, Samuel Adler, and Warren Benson. In addition, Mr. Thoms has been a teacher of music
and English and a school administrator with a BA in elementary and secondary education in the fields of
English and music from Concordia University Chicago, an EdS in educational administration from the
University of Toledo, and completed the MALA from St. John’s College, Annapolis. He has been awarded
a number of fellowships: Joseph Klingenstein Fellowship to Columbia University Teachers College, an
Alden B. Dow Creativity Fellowship, was a Fulbright Teacher to Scotland, and was selected for the
summer seminar for principals at Harvard University Graduate School of Education. Last May, Mr.
Thoms presented a recital of his music for piano and instruments at St. John’s College, Annapolis which
included works for flute, oboe, bassoon, cello and voice, and featured the premiere of his Piano Sonata
played by Andrew Stewart. In October, his opera Conversations, based on two short stories by
Hemingway and Joyce, was premiered at Concordia College-New York. You can learn more about Hollis
Thoms by going to his composer website at www.hollisthoms.com
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Jacqueline Thoms, writer of the love letters presented in the opera and soprano for the four songs by
Garth Baxter, recently retired as Registrar of St. John’s College, Annapolis. She has a BA in elementary
education from Concordia University Chicago and an MM in organ performance from Colorado State
University. She has sung in many community, concert and church choirs and has also had a career in the
past as a church musician. Recently, as soprano soloist, she premiered four songs by Richard Simpson
(1820-1876) during a lecture recital given along with her husband Hollis Thoms at St. John’s College,
Annapolis, on research he has done into the musical settings of Shakespeare’s sonnets by Richard
Simpson. She also sang Two Love Songs by Hollis Thoms on a recital of his works last May also at St.
John’s College, Annapolis. Currently, she is interim organist and choir director at All Hallows Episcopal
Church, Davidsonville, Maryland.
Dr. Jason Thoms is the Dean of Arts and Sciences and Director of Choral Activities at Concordia College–
New York in Bronxville, NY. At Concordia, Jason conducts the Concordia Chamber Choir, Tour Choir,
Women’s Chorale, Men’s Glee, and the Concordia Camerata. In the past 8 years, his choirs have
performed over 330 concerts, worship services and special events, embarking on 11 tours, in 47 states
and 2 Canadian Provinces. He is a graduate of St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota and has an MM
and DMA from Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. Besides conducting, Dr. Thoms is a
professional bass/baritone soloist and chorister and published composer.
Treva Foss is Assistant Professor of Music at Concordia College-New York, where she teaches voice,
music courses and general education courses. Hollis Thoms has written multiple compositions
specifically for her voice and she has premiered many of his compositions: Requiem for 9/11(song cycle),
Silence (song cycle), Socrates (opera), The Moustache (opera), Rime of the Ancient Mariner (opera),
Passion (oratorio), and, last fall, Conversations(opera). Treva is an accomplished concert soloist
including performances of the Fauré Requiem, Vivaldi Gloria, Jason Thoms Gloria, Pergolesi Stabat
Mater, Handel's Messiah and Haydn Little Organ Mass. She has sung in the Bel Canto Institute in
Florence, Italy, OperaWorks program in Los Angeles, CA and the Palm Beach Opera Young Artist
Program.
Sonja (Thoms) Winkler joined the Nashville Symphony as Senior Director Operations and Orchestra
Manager in 2015. Previously, Sonja was the Director of Operations and Touring at the Pittsburgh
Symphony Orchestra, where she had the opportunity to manage multiple international tours to Europe
and Asia in addition to several domestic tours to Washington DC, Florida, New York, Quebec and North
Carolina. Sonja's work also included overseeing all concert production and working on electronic media
projects for the Pittsburgh Symphony. Sonja comes from a very musical family and began studying the
oboe at age 9. She has a BM in oboe performance from the Eastman School of Music and MM in oboe
performance from Rice University. As an oboist, Sonja has performed with the Lucerne Academy
Orchestra, National Repertory Orchestra, New World Symphony, Alarm Will Sound new music
ensemble, and soloed with Ossia new music ensemble playing the Oboe Concerto by Ellen Taafe Zwillich.
Sonja was also a performer in Carnegie Hall's 2006 workshop with David Robertson: Music of Messiaen
and Varèse. As a conductor, Sonja has conducted several premieres of works by her father, Hollis
Thoms. Sonja lives outside Nashville with her husband, Jordan, and son, Ethan.
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Garth Baxter is noted for his modern traditionalist style of writing, a style that combines the traditions
of form and clear melodic writing with the use of contemporary approaches to harmonies and other
elements. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1946 and grew up in California where he earned
music degrees from Pepperdine University and California State University at Northridge. He studied
composition with Robert Hall Lewis, Joseph Wagner and William Thornton. He studied guitar with
Ronald Purcell and David Underwood. A recipient of many awards, Garth has had many of his
compositions performed throughout the world. His music is published by Columbia Music Company,
Les Productions d’OZ, Mel Bay Publications, Airy Publications, Voices of Training, and Guitar Chamber
Music Press. The CD, Katherine Keem Sings Songs and Arias by Garth Baxter, was released September
2014 from Centaur Records. Baxter is on the music faculty of McDaniel College in Westminster,
Maryland. www.garth.baxter.org
Classical guitarist Danielle Cumming is well known as a performer and teacher. Her performances have
been broadcast in the United States and in Canada on national television and radio. In addition to giving
recitals in North America and Europe, Danielle has served on international guitar competition juries and
is in high demand for her skill as a teacher in master class settings. After a year of study in Spain,
Danielle released her solo CD, postcards, a recording of 20th century repertoire with world music
influences. In 2015 she recorded her second solo CD (to be released in 2016 on the German
label AureaVox), of music Danielle commissioned over the past few years. Danielle holds a Doctorate in
Performance from McGill University and a Masters in Performance from the University of Toronto,
where she studied with the renowned guitarist, Norbert Kraft. Danielle is a D’Addario artist.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was born around April 23, 1564 and was baptized in Holy Trinity
Church in Stratford on April 26, 1564. He went to grammar school in Stratford and presumably
continued his education in the area. On November 28, 1582 he was given permission by the Bishop of
Winchester to marry Anne Hathaway. Six months later, on May 26, 1583, they baptized their first child,
Susanna in Holy Trinity Church, and on February 2, 1585, their twins Judith and Hamnet. Nothing is
documented about Shakespeare until 1592 when it is known that he was already making his mark as a
playwright in London. In the summer of 1592 the outbreak of the plague closed the theaters in London,
and Shakespeare returned to Stratford until 1594 when the theaters opened again. It is during this time
that it is assumed that he wrote much of his early poetry. In October 1594, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men
was founded and one of its shareholders was Shakespeare. For the rest of his career as an actor and
playwright he belonged to this company which was considered London’s best. Shakespeare focused on
play-writing and wrote plays until 1614, when he retired and went back to Stratford a wealthy man, and
lived there until 1616. Shakespeare’s 154 Sonnets were published in a “bootleg” thin quarto volume, in
1609, it is thought without his authorization. He died on April 23, 1616 and is buried beneath the stone
floor of Holy Trinity Church, Stratford. In 1623, Ben Johnson and friends published Shakespeare’s First
Folio. The rest is history.
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Baritone:
1: Sonnet 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometimes declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to thee thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Soprano:
Sonnet 76
O, know, sweet love I always write of you.
2: Letter 1
August 17, 1968
Home in Rochester, New York
Here I am, writing already, and it’s only Saturday night. And I ought to apologize for the sneaky trick
making you carry my junk to the basement of my apartment before I left. So, I hope you didn’t mind
your silly little girl…forgive me, forgive me. When the plane took off it seemed to have difficulty getting
off the ground because it sensed that I didn’t want to leave you. My heart was heavy almost too heavy
for the plane to lift off and carry me away. Yet, my flight was really fine. It’s always neat to fly above the
clouds and look down on them. It was especially neat tonight because the sun was setting and, of
course, the clouds where pink that they were beneath us. It looked like a while field of cotton candy.
When I came home there was a small group of relatives waiting for me. I felt like a celebrity, like a
celebrity. You can tell, I’ve been talking a mile a minute since I got home. I am happy to be home. Yes,
happy to be home. So I won’t be sentimental and say anything more than I love you very much.
3: Sonnet 50
How heavy do I journey on the way,
When what I seek, my weary travel’s end.
Doth teach that ease and that repose to say
“Thus far the miles are measured from thy friend.”
The beast that bears me tired with my woe,
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Plods dully on, to bear that weight in me,
As if by some instinct the wretch did know
His rider loved not speed, being made from thee.
The bloody spur cannot provoke him on
That sometimes anger thrusts into his hide,
Which heavily he answers with a groan,
More sharp to me than spurring to his side;
For that same groan doth put this in my mind;
My grief lies onward and my joy behind.
4: Letter 2
August 18, 1968
with my parents in New York, New York
Writing on VIP stationery…Our hotel is elegant. And today we took a three hour boat ride. It was hot and
humid. All in all, yes, it has been a very good day. I am enjoying myself. But, it felt just a bit empty. Oh,
yes a bit empty without you.
Soprano and Baritone:
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds to shake the darling buds of May
And summer’s lease hath all too soon a date. (Sonnet 18)
O know, sweet love… (Sonnet 76)
Soprano:
And, tomorrow we are going shopping, yes going shopping on Fifth Avenue! I expect to leave with my
“ugly” shoes though. But I hope you are not working , yes, over working so that you are exhausted! So
that you are too tired for your summer classes. So, I hope you don’t mind your silly little girl…forgive me
for nagging you.
Baritone:
5: Sonnet 27
Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
The dear repose for limbs with travel tired,
But then begins a journey in my head
To work my mind when body’s work’s expired.
For then my thoughts, from far where I abide,
Instead a zealous pilgrimage to thee,
And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,
Looking on darkness which the blind do see,
Save that my soul’s imaginary sight
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Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,
Which like a jewel hung in ghastly night
Makes black night beauteous and her old face new.
Lo, thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind,
For thee and for myself no quiet find.
Soprano:
6: Letter 3
August 19, 1968
New York, New York
Here I am writing for the third time. Have you written me yet? I won’t know until I get home on
Thursday night. I’ll just have to be patient. Maybe when I get a letter from you I won’t miss you so. We
went shopping. I got my ugly shoes, yes my ugly shoes! Tonight we go to a Broadway show!
(Interlude-Henry Mancini “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”)
Just got back. The Broadway show was simply great! I wish you could have been here! Here I go, getting
sentimental again! It’s your silly little girl! If you were here you could reprimand me for being, yes, being
a silly little girl. But the reason I am so silly is that your not here! So, I hope you didn’t mind your silly
little girl. All I think about is you.
(Interlude-Henry Mancini “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”)
So, good night. So much for today’s report from New York. I hope you’re not too disappointed. I can’t
wait to hear something from you. I’ll survive, don’t worry about me. I’ll be home Thursday night so don’t
forget to call me. 716-671-4848! Not that you must call me, not that you must call. Just a suggestion. So,
I hope you didn’t mind your silly little girl for only thinking about you!
Baritone and Soprano Duet:
7: Sonnet 29
When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising.
Haply, I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
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Soprano:
8: Letter 4
August 23, 1968
Home in Rochester, New York
Thanks for calling, even if we didn’t say a lot. I just want to see you again. You should have felt this little
girl’s heartbeat double when she heard your voice, yes your voice. So, tonight we are all going out to
dinner: parents and aunts and uncles…Everyone is celebrating something tonight. But, what am I
celebrating? Love, perhaps. Love and being alive, yes, alive. I think of you every single moment. You are
in my mind’s eye always, yet, I can’t share things with you! For you are not really here with me, only in
my heart. In my mind’s eye or in my heart. If these three weeks really do finally end, yes, finally end it
will be so glorious to actually see you and touch you again.
Baritone (Sonnet 46) and Soprano (Sonnet 47) Duet:
9: Sonnet 46
Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war
How to decide the conquest of thy sight.
Mine eye my heart thy picture’s sight would bar.
My heart mine eye the freedom of that right.
My heart doth plead that thou in him dost lie,
A closet never pierced with crystal eyes;
But thy defendant doth that plea deny,
And says to him thy fair appearance lies,
To ‘cide this title is impaneled
A quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart,
And by their verdict is determined
The clear eyes moiety and the dear heart part.
As thus: mine eyes due is thy outward part,
And my heart’s night, thy inward love of heart.
Sonnet 47
Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took,
And each doth good turns now unto the other.
When that mine eye is famished for a look,
Or heart in love with sighs himself doth smother.
With my love’s picture then my eye doth feast
And to the painted banquet bids my heart,
Another time mine eye is my heart’s guest
And in his thoughts of love doth share a part.
So, either by thy picture or my love,
Thyself away are present still with me;
For thou no farther than my thoughts canst move,
And I am still with them, and they with thee;
Or, if they sleep, thy picture in my sight
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Awakes my heart to heart’s and eye’s delight.
Soprano:
O know, sweet love, I always write of you. (Sonnet 76)
Soprano and Baritone duet:
10/11:
Letter 5
December 19, 1968
Home in Rochester, New York
I am home all alone all day. It has been a long boring day. I can’t start on my dress until my mother finds
the time to help me cut it out. And my friend here has the flu, so I can’t see her and, of course, I can’t
see you. My dog, Fang, remembered me last night for I thought he had forgotten me. Let me know if
there is the possibility of returning early to see you. I would like to spend a few days wit you before the
semester starts. And I think of you at every turn since I got home, since I got home. I am thankful that
we have each other. And, happy that I’ll see you soon. So, I won’t be sentimental and say something
more than I love you very much! Yes, your silly little, silly little girl.
(Interlude-Mozart Piano Sonata Nr. 18 fragment)
12: Letter 6
December 23, 1968
Home in Rochester, New York
Your card came in the mail today. I went running out to the mailbox. I hope I get another letter from
you, yes from you tomorrow. And my mother now is working on my dress so I can wear it on Christmas!
And I am once again practicing my Mozart for my recital.
(Interlude-Mozart Piano Sonata Nr. 18 fragment)
So, tonight we saw a special television show on the Eisenhower wedding. I’m afraid I was really envious
of them, though they are in college. Just the fact that they are just students. It would be pretty rough
but it still…I am happy and it shows, people say it does, and I can’t help that. I am also so happy inside I
show it in my face. And I wish you could be here and just share this all, share this all with me. I would
like you to meet my parents and that they would get to know you, too. And I think of you at every turn
since I got home, since I got home. I am thankful that we have each other. And, happy that I’ll see you
soon. So, I won’t be sentimental and say anything more than I love you very much! Yes your own, your
silly little, silly little girl!
Baritone (Sonnet 130):
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun,
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
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If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
Baritone (Sonnet 128) and Soprano (Sonnet 8) Duet:
13: Sonnet 128
How oft, when thou, my music, music play’st
Upon that blessed wood whose motion sounds
With thy sweet fingers when thou gently sway’st
The wiry concord that mine ear confounds.
Do I envy those jacks that nimble leap
To kiss the tender inward of thy hand,
Whilst my poor lips, which should that harvest reap,
At the wood’s boldness by thee blushing stand.
To be so tickled they would change their state
And situation with those dancing chips,
O’er whom thy fingers walk with gentle gait,
Making dead wood more blest than living lips.
Since saucy jacks so happy are in this,
Give them thy fingers, me thy lips to kiss.
Sonnet 8
Music to hear, why hear’st thou music sadly?
Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy,
Why lov’st thou that which thou receiv’st not gladly;
Or else receiv’st with pleasure thine annoy?
If the true concord of well-tuned sounds,
By unions married do offend thine ear;
They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds
In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear.
Mark how one string, sweet husband to another,
Strikes each in each by mutual ordering,
Resembling sire and child and happy mother
Who, all in one, one pleasing note do sing;
Whose speechless song, being many, seeming one,
Sings this to thee: “Thou single will prove none.”
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Soprano:
14: Letter 7
December 23, 1968
Home in Rochester, New York
I have talked to my parents about us getting married and all. They seem happy, eager to be part of our
life. I hope you can come at Easter time for they want to get to know you more. They are excited for us. I
know now how wonderful it is to love and to be loved. I will take the fastest jet back to you, non-stop
back to you so that before long…yes, before long I can be in your arms.
15: Sonnet 51
Thus can my love excuse slow offense
Of my dull bearer when from thee I speed;
From where thou art, why should I haste me thence?
Till I return, of posting is no need.
O, what excuse will my poor beast then find
When swift extremity can seem but show?
Then should I spur, though mounted on the wind;
In winged speed no motion shall I know.
Then can no horse with my desire keep pace;
Therefore desire, of perfect’st love being made,
Shall neigh no dull flesh in his fiery race,
But love for thee shall excuse my jade:
“Since from thee going he went willful slow,
Towards thee I’ll run, and give him leave to go.”
16: Letter 8
December 26, 1968
Home in Rochester, New York
Everything that I think of or do seems to be concerned with you. Even in getting my Christmas gifts. I
wanted to share them with you. Everyone asks about you even by name. Even those I barely know. Even
those I thought did not know you. This is getting ridiculous!
Baritone and Soprano duet
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May
And summer’s lease hath all too soon a date. (Sonnet 18 fragment)
O, know, sweet love… (Sonnet 76 fragment)
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Soprano:
I am ready, I am ready to come home, yes to come home, yes, come home to you. It is very much like
that you are my home. I am free to be myself. I cannot be that here without you, yet I could be
anywhere with you. I am sure you’re bored with my saying the same things over and over again. So, I
hope you don’t mind your silly little girl waiting to come home to you.
O, know, sweet love, I always write of you…(Sonnet 76 fragment)
17/18: Letter 9
December 27, 1968
Happy Birthday to you. I suppose at the end of the year is a time to look back at the year. You have
caused a change in me. I am free to be happy, to be angry, sad, content, sensitive, and foolish, sensual,
and passionate. And, at times so very much a little girl but also a woman! While at times it has been so
very painful. I have never cried so much, yet , I have also never smiled so much! All because of you! I
thank God especially for you and to think that this, yes, to think that this, this is only a beginning for us,
our life together. A humble but radiant happy and silly little girl woman who loves you forever!
Baritone solo against narrative of soprano:
My love…
Fair, kind and true
Three in one
My love…
(Sonnet 105 paraphrase fragment)
(Hymn chant on the Trinity quoted in instrumental texture in cello)
Instrumental (Sonnet 116)
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O, no, it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand’ring bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error, and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor man ever loved.
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Texts for the Four Songs from Twelfth Night by Garth Baxter
Twelfth Night is a popular Shakespeare play. The problem is the play includes songs or references to
songs, but no actual music. Commissioned to write the music for a performance at McDaniel College, I
composed the four songs sung by the “fool” Feste. Shakespeare also gives directions for actors to sing
snippets from hit tunes of the day, leaving it to the director and actors to find those melodies. I had fun
creating all the incidental music, songs, and snippets for Twelfth Night. As an aside, there is some
question whether Shakespeare or Robert Armin (the first actor to play Feste) wrote the closing song,
When that I was and a little tiny boy. Mr. Armin, a playwright himself, was a flashy actor who may have
decided to add his own touch to the play. Or was it written by that great Renaissance composer and
writer, Anonymous? (Three of the songs will be sung.)
O Mistress Mine (Twelfth Night, Act II, Scene III)
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:
Journeys end in lovers meeting,
Every 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.
Come Away, Come Away, Death (Twelfth Night, Act II, Scene IV)
Come away, come away death,
And in sad cypress let me be laid.
Fie away, fie away breath,
I am slain by a fair cruel maid:
My shroud of white, stuck all with yew,
O prepare it.
My part of death no one so true
Did share it.
Not a flower, not a flower sweet,
On my black coffin let there be strewn:
Not a friend, not a friend greet
My poor corpse, where my bones shall be thrown:
A thousand thousand sighs to save,
Lay me, O where
Sad true lover never find my grave,
To weep there.
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When That I Was and a Little Tiny Boy (Twelfth Night, Act V, Scene I)
When that I was and a little tiny boy,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
A foolish thing was but a toy,
For the rain it raineth every day.
But when I came to man’s estate,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
‘Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate,
For the rain it raineth every day.
But when I came, alas, to wive,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
By swaggering could I never thrive,
For the rain it raineth every day.
But, when I came unto my beds,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
With toss-pots still ‘had drunken heads,
For the rain it raineth every day.
A great while ago the world begun,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
But that’s all one, our play is done,
And we’ll strive to please you every day.
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