When daffodils begin to peer - George Shearing, John Rutter, The Cambridge Singers
9. 'When daffodils begin to peer'
Songs and Sonnets from Shakespeare
From the album ‘Feel the Spirit’
Composer George Shearing
Conductor John Rutter
Choir The Cambridge Singers
Double Bass Malcolm Creese
Piano Wayne Marshall
Buy, download or stream: https://smarturl.it/FeelTheSpirit
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LYRICS:
When daffodils begin to peer,
With heigh! the doxy, over the dale,
Why, then comes in the sweet o’ the year;
For the red blood reigns in the winter’s pale.
The white sheet bleaching on the hedge,
With heigh! the sweet birds, O how they sing!
Doth set my pugging tooth on edge;
For a quart of ale is a dish for a king.
The lark, that tirra-lirra chants,
With heigh! with heigh! the thrush and the jay,
Are summer songs for me and my aunts,
While we lie tumbling in the hay
(The Winter’s Tale, act 4, scene 2)
Songs and Sonnets from Shakespeare
This second Shakespeare cycle, by George Shearing, was premièred in 1999 with the composer at the piano, Neil Swainson playing bass, and John Rutter guest-conducting. John instantly loved the music - 'so fresh and youthful, so witty, tender and varied' that he recorded it with the Cambridge Singers.
Feel the Spirit
Strong, stirring spirituals and tuneful, jazz-flavoured settings of Shakespeare’s timeless lyrics are the mouth-watering ingredients of the Cambridge Singers’ album Feel the Spirit. John Rutter has written vivid arrangements of seven well-loved American spirituals for choir, with soloist Melanie Marshall and the BBC Concert Orchestra joining together with the Cambridge Singers for this world première recording.
John Rutter, English composer and conductor, is associated with choral music throughout the world. His recordings with the Cambridge Singers (the professional chamber choir he set up in 1983) have reached a wide global audience, many of them featuring his own music in definitive versions. Among John’s best-known choral works are Gloria, Requiem, Magnificat, Mass of the Children, and Visions, together with many church anthems, choral songs and Christmas carols.
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