Songs For All Seasons

Today's Song of the Day is, unsurprisingly, a song about Guy Fawkes Night , aka Bonfire Night, aka  Fireworks Night aka Gunpowder Treason Day. Unless you slept through primary school (or happen to be from outside the UK)  you're likely aware that today marks the day when the nation comes together to celebrate the thwarting of the Gunpowder Plot devised by Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators, who aimed to obliterate Parliament and King James I back in 1605. This day is traditionally filled with dazzling fireworks displays and roaring bonfires, where we cast an effigy of Guy Fawkes himself into the flames, though, in more recent years, other notorious figures have taken his place. What you might not know is that in the aftermath of the Plot, the government enacted an Act of Parliament mandating an annual public day of thanksgiving for the plot’s failure. We all know the verse: Remember, remember! The fift...

Today's song of the day is a little early, seasonally, but it is the latest performance I have received back from one of my Beta choirs. When I was making my initial list, right at the beginning of this project, of festivals and occasions I wanted to write songs for, I came across a few that were new to me. Lammas is one of these. Lammas (from Old English hlāfmæsse , "loaf-mass"), also known as Loaf Mass Day, is a Christian holiday celebrated in some English-speaking countries in the Northern Hemisphere on 1 August. The name originates from the word "loaf" in reference to bread and "Mass" in reference to the Eucharist. It is a festival in the liturgical calendar to mark the blessing of the First Fruits of harvest, with a loaf of bread being brought to the church for this purpose. Lammastide falls at the halfway point between the summer solstice and the autumn equinox. Christians also have church processions to bakeries, where those working therein are ...

Summer is the season of love, of marriages and betrothals. What better time of year to share the latest recording I have received back from one of my Beta choirs? Today's Song of the Day was written on the theme of engagement, but it would be equally suitable for a wedding. It is a setting of Christopher Marlowe's poem "The Passionate Shepherd to his Love." Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), a brilliant contemporary of Shakespeare, held the esteemed title of the preeminent Elizabethan playwright until Shakespeare took the mantle. He earned both his BA and MA from the University of Cambridge, yet his life was tragically cut short at the tender age of 29, under circumstances that remain mysterious to this day. Speculation abounds regarding the nature and reasons behind his untimely demise—ranging from a bar-room brawl to accusations of blasphemy, whispers of homosexual intrigue, betrayal by a fellow playwright, and even espionage connected to the highest echelons of Eliza...

I have received another recording from one of my Beta choirs I would like to share with you today.  25th March in the Christian calendar is the Feast of the Annunciation, which commemorates the visit of the archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary, during which he informed her that she would be the mother of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  The poem I have set to celebrate this feast day is called The Annunciation by American poet Alfred Joyce Kilmer (1886 - 1918), known as Joyce Kilmer. As well as writing poetry, Kilmer was also a journalist, literary critic, lecturer, and editor. Kilmer enlisted in the New York National Guard and was deployed to France with the 69th Infantry Regiment (the famous "Fighting 69th") in 1917. He was killed by a sniper's bullet at the Second Battle of the Marne in 1918 at the young age of 31. He was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre (War Cross) by the French Republic. It is performed here by the 20-strong Heriot-Watt University Chamber Choir...

Today is American Independence Day so it is fortuitous that I have just completed work on the latest video of a performance by one of my lovely Beta choirs which serves to honour two great Americans on this day. Today's Song of the Day is my setting of a famous poem by Walt Whitman (1819-1892), "O Captain! My Captain!", written in 1865, in the wake of President Lincoln's assassination in April of that year.  Although he never met Lincoln, Whitman felt a connection to him and was greatly moved by Lincoln's assassination. Many people "of a certain age" may, like me, have been first introduced to it in the film "Dead Poets Society" starring the incredible, inimitable, indescribably funny Robin Williams (can you tell I'm a fan?) who you can see AI-imagined as a sea captain in the first photo of this video. Uncharacteristic of Whitman's poetry, the poem was Whitman's most popular during his lifetime, and the only one to be anthologized b...

Today's Song of the Day is a celebration of summer and of love. Set to a poem by Robert Fuller Murray (1863–1893), A Summer Morning starts with the narrator celebrating the beauty of  the summer morning, declaring that the sun had never been so bright, the birdsong never so sweet, or the grass so green, and we learn that this particular summer day is so lovely because of the presence of his beloved. Although born in the United States, Murray moved with his family at the age of six to Kelso, Scotland and from then on lived most of his life in the United Kingdom, most notably in St Andrews, Scotland. He attended grammar school in Ilminster and Crewkerne and in 1881 he entered the University of St Andrews. He wrote two books of poetry and was published occasionally in periodicals. He sadly died young, most likely from tuberculosis, "dying with his work scarcely begun"*. This poem was published in the volume referenced below, which was published posthumously in 1894, the year...