Songs For All Seasons

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...

Today's Song of the Day is the second of my songs on the theme of weddings. It is a setting of a poem entitled "Marriage Morning" by Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892). Tennyson is probably one of Britain's most famous poets. He was Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign and penned such greats as "The Charge of the Light Brigade" which gave us the immortal lines "Into the Valley of Death / Rode the six hundred" and "Theirs not to reason why / Theirs but to do and die." A number of phrases from Tennyson's work have become commonplace in the English language, including "Nature, red in tooth and claw" ("In Memoriam A.H.H."), "'Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all". "Marriage Morning" is a beautiful short poem wherein Tennyson describes the morning of the marriage to his beloved as the "golden morning of love" and asks the question "He...

We're feeling the love today at SFAS! With weddings as our theme, today's Song of the Day is a special tribute to my parents, who just celebrated their 58th wedding anniversary 11 days ago. We're showcasing a setting of the poem "To My Dear and Loving Husband" by Anne Bradstreet. While the poem is written from a wife's perspective, the second and third verses have a lovely universality to them. In my setting, the sopranos and altos take the lead on the first verse, then the tenors and basses represent the husband's response in the second verse, and finally, everyone comes together for the third verse, singing lovingly to each other. Anne Bradstreet was born in England in 1612 and married at just 16 before emigrating with her parents and young family to Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630. She became one of the most notable early English poets in North America and was the first writer from the North American colonies to be published. Get the music for this son...