Four Elizabethan Songs About Love (2018)

I: The Passionate Shepherd to His Love; II: When I was Fair and Young; III: The Message; IV: Sonnet 116

The composer writes: I almost titled this work “Four Elizabethan Love Songs.” However, while such a title might be appropriate for a group of songs about the joys of loving relationships, the texts I have chosen do not all fit that mould. Of the four, only Christopher Marlowe’s seductive “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” and Shakespeare’s wise and insightful Sonnet 116 address requited love. On the other hand, John Donne’s “The Message” is a “hate-song” – an angry poem about love gone wrong, bursting with bitter recriminations. And Elizabeth I’s “When I Was Fair and Young,” is wistful and full of regret: the Queen realizes that her own youthful pride has obstructed her opportunities for happiness. Together, these poems offer four dramatically contrasting views about love.