"As I went out one May morning," Trad. English folk song

As I went out one May morning,
One May morning betime,
I met a maid, from home had stray'd,
Just as the sun did shine.
What makes you rise so soon, my dear,
Your journey to pursue??
Your pretty little feet, they tread so sweet,
Strike off the morning dew.
I'm going to feed my father's flocks,
His young and tender lambs,
That over hill and over dale
Lie waiting for their dams.
O stay! O stay! you handsome maid,
And rest a moment here,
For there is none but you alone
That I do love so dear.
How gloriously the sun doth shine,
How pleasant is the air,
I'd rather rest on my true love's breast
Than any other where.
For I am thine and thou art mine,
No man shall uncomfort thee,
We'll join our hands in wedded bands,
And married we shall be.

We open with Paul Ayres' "As I went out one May morning," a setting of the English folk song "Searching for lambs," notable for its unusual lopsided meter of 5/4. As listeners we are far more accustomed to hearing duple or triple meters;* this melody oscillates between two beats and three beats. I find this setting remarkable for its stunning accompaniment; it starts out as a standard alternation of the arpeggiated* chords of tonic* and dominant,* but then the chords start to spin off into unanticipated and unusual directions. Together, meter* and accompaniment create an unsettling mood suggesting that no happy future awaits this union. The fact that the last phrase of the final verse fades in dynamic to a soprano iteration in a slower time value intimates to me that the maiden has given up her virginity under the false pretense of marriage to her love, a common characteristic of folksongs of the British Isles.

"To Daffodils" from Five Flower Songs, Robert Herrick (1591-1674)

Fair daffodils, we weep to see
You haste away so soon;
As yet the early-rising sun
Has not attain'd his noon.
Stay, stay, until the hasting day
Has run but to the evensong;
And, having prayed together, we
Will go with you along.
We have short time to stay, as you.
We have as short a Spring;
As quick a growth to meet decay,
As you, or anything.
We die, as your hours do, and dry away
Like to the summer's rain;
Or as the pearls of morning's dew,
Ne'er to be found again.

Benjamin Britten set "To Daffodils," a poem by the 17th century English poet Robert Herrick, early in his compositional career. Herrick associated the brief life of flowers with that of human life in quite a few of his poems; you may be familiar with the line from one of them: gather ye rosebuds while ye may. In this poem he speaks to the brevity of the daffodil's life and then compares it to the transience of human existence. In the first half of the poem Britten's music belies Herrick's message; rather his setting alludes to the flower's heralding of Spring and its glorious prime. The two outer voices sing in octaves in a quasi canon* with the inner voices also in octaves. The fast tempo* and major tonality* along with a triple subdivision to set the word daffodils create this joyful and exuberant mood. In the mid-section, where Herrick compares the similarities between us and the flower, Britten retains the major tonality* and illustrates the text by having the upper three voices in homophony* sing the text while the basses echo the initial melodic line to stress the similarity. Only when the text turns to the mortality of both — we die as your hours do — does he use the minor tonality* in an extended line in the bass, reverting to the major tonality and eventually to the initial musical material for the final line of the poem.

"Frogs," translated by Harry Behn (1898-1973)

"Day darken!" frogs say Yosa Buson (1716-1784)
"Day darken!" frogs say
by day. "Bring light, light!" they cry
by night. Old grumblers!
An old silent pond... Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694)
An old silent pond...
A frog jumps into the pond,
splash! Silence again.
Ho, for the May rains Sugiyama Sanpū (1647-1732)
Ho, for the May rains
when frogs swim in my open
door for a visit!
A tree frog trilling Ishii Rogetsu (1873-1928)
A tree frog trilling
softly, the first drop of rain
slips down the new leaves.
Frog-school competing Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902)
Frog-school competing
with lark-school at dusk softly
in the art of song...
Hop out of my way Miura Chora (1729-1780)
Hop out of my way,
Mr. Toad, and allow me
please to plant bamboo!

Norman Dinerstein set "Frogs" to translations of Japanese haikus. The pieces teem with musical representations of the characteristics of frogs. The opening motif of the bass in the first piece that also appears in the fifth one apes the ribbit of a frog in Dinerstein's setting of the words day darken and frog school respectively. He uses a different frog croak in the third piece to set the text for a visit. The last piece begins and ends with rhythmic irregularities of a motif tossed among each part individually to capture the movement of a hopping frog, while the second piece has the same irregularity of rhythm, this time expressed in homophony* of some voices with the interjection of others.

Dinerstein also captures the serenity of the pond which the frogs inhabit. In the second piece, a setting at the opening expresses the tranquility of the frog's environment with slow homophony* in a wonderful chord built mainly on fourths — a chord expressed in several of the pieces which thereby unifies the six pieces — and then rudely interrupts it with the fast irregular rhythm to express the frogs' jumping. He transitions back to the opening motif by using the onomatopoeia of the sh in the word splash to convey the echo of the sound as well as the subsidence of the water's rings caused by the jump into the pond. This placid mood dominates the fourth piece entirely to describe the trilling of a tree frog — illustrated by duple and triple subdivisions in the melody — in juxtaposition to the descending melodic line to depict the first drop of rain slips down the new leaf, and the quiet mood continues in the fifth piece. Dinerstein opens it with contrasting motifs of the lark school expressed in the soprano and the croak of the frog school heard in the bass and then uses a lyric melody to create an imitative counterpoint* as an illustration of the art of song. Eventually all voices move into homophony* at a forte* dynamic* in an exultant celebration of the art of song before returning to the opening contrasting motifs of the lark and frog.

The third and final pieces of the set have the observant narrator of the poems in dialogue with the frogs. The imitative line in the sixth one setting and allow me please to plant bamboo sounds almost like wheedling because of its slower tempo and large intervals going up and then down. Eventually though the dynamic builds, and the final iteration of that text is stated in homophony* in a forte* dynamic* to express the gardener's frustration at the toad's impeding his ability to plant bamboo.

"Stardust," Brittny Ray Crowell (b. 1985)

If we are only stardust
Let your names reach to the sky above us
Like petals wafting on a breeze
We lift you up beyond our reach
Kum Buba Yali, Kum Buba Tambe
Amen! We say your names
If we are only stardust
May your blood never be in vain
Like petals wafting on a breeze
We lift you up beyond our reach
Kum Buba Yali, Kum Buba Tambe
Amen! We say your names
Each day we grieve another face
Maybe all this stardust
Will carry us home one day
To a home where we can run
A home where we can pray
A home where we can breathe,
To sleep and dream without fear —
Is justice this far away?
We cry your names
For the strength to keep on fighting
With the hope that you are flying
Kum Buba Yali, Kum Buba Tambe
Stardust

I love the sentiment in "Stardust" that we all are composed of the same matter. B.E. Boykin set the poem by Brittany Rae Crowell. While the poem honors those whose unjust killing inspired the Black Lives Matter movement, it resonates strongly with today's treatment of migrants by ICE. You can read the entire commentary on the inside page of the work here.

"Come in," Robert Frost (1874-1963)

As I came to the edge of the woods,
Thrush music — hark!
Now if it was dusk outside,
Inside it was dark.
Too dark in the woods for a bird
By sleight of wing
To better its perch for the night,
Though it still could sing.
The last of the light of the sun
That had died in the west
Still lived for one song more
In a thrush's breast.
Far in the pillared dark
Thrush music went —
Almost like a call to come in
To the dark and lament.
But no, I was out for stars;
I would not come in.
I meant not even if asked;
And I hadn't been.

Randall Thompson composed seven settings of poems of Robert Frost as a commission from the town of Amherst to commemorate its 250th anniversary; we excerpt "Come in" for this concert. Apparently Frost was so thrilled with Thompson's set he forbade any other composer to use any of his poems. When his estate finally allowed permission to use a few of them, so many settings of "Stopping by woods on a snowy evening" got written that they withdrew all permission once again! In this composition Thompson represents the thrush's song in the piano accompaniment as a dialogue with the narrator, who is represented by the treble* voices. Hear the narrator invite us to hark with the staccato setting of the word, as though they were cocking their ear; the descriptive parallel falling first inversion of a minor chord on lament; and the final emphatic declaration but no, I was out for stars through the fortissimo* setting high in the vocal registers* of the singers. I find Frost's poem moving and Thompson's setting of it profoundly affecting.

Shona malanga

Shona malanga!
Sesizo
Dibana ngothando emhlabeni
As the sun sets!
We will meet again
United by love

"Shona malanga" is a very well-known anti-apartheid song of South Africa in the Zulu language; Vicki Tanya Courtney composed this harmonization. The symbolism of the sun setting represents the desire for apartheid to end, while we will meet again refers both to the reunification of families separated by imprisonment, exile, or death and the coming together to fight apartheid. Originally the last line called for revolution by any means necessary, but after apartheid's end people began to replace the last line with the one we sing tonight.

"The Evening Primrose," from Five flower Songs, John Clare (1793-1864)

When once the sun sinks in the west,
And dew-drops pearl the evening's breast;
Almost as pale as moonbeams are,
Or its companionable star.
The evening primrose opes anew
Its delicate blossoms to the dew
And, hermit-like, shunning the light,
Wastes its fair bloom upon the night;
Who, blindfold to its fond caresses,
Knows not the beauty he possesses.
Thus it blooms on while night is by;
When day looks out with open eye,
'Bashed at the gaze it cannot shun.
It faints and withers and is gone.

"The Evening Primrose," along with "Fair Daffodils" and "Marsh Flowers," are part of the set "Five Flower Songs" that Britten composed in 1950. In his ordering of the five Britten follows "Marsh Flowers" with "The Evening Primrose," perhaps as an anodyne to its predecessor, but we present it first tonight. The 19th century English Romantic poet John Clare, the son of a farm laborer and one himself, wrote about nature and its disruptions due to the industrial age. I love the tranquility of this piece, created by the largely homophonic* texture, major tonality,* slower tempo,* and piano dynamic.* Britten breaks the hushed mood only once to musically depict a sunrise with a grand crescendo;* he follows it immediately with a decrescendo* to illustrate the fading of the flower and emphasizes its withering through mirrored canons* in two duets.

"Marsh Flowers," from Five Flower Songs, George Crabbe (1754-1832)

Here the strong mallow strikes her slimy root,
Here the dull night-shade hangs her deadly
fruit:
On hills of dust the henbane's faded green
And pencil'd flower of sickly scent is seen
Here on its wiry stem, in rigid bloom,
Grows the salt lavender that lacks perfume.
At the wall's base the fiery nettle springs
With fruit globose and fierce with poison'd
stings;
In ev'ry chink delights the fern to grow,
With glossy leaf and tawny bloom below;
The few dull flowers that o'er the place are
spread
Partake the nature of their fenny bed.
These, with our sea-weeds, rolling up and down.
Form the contracted Flora of our town.

The creepy text of "Marsh Flowers" is quite unexpected in a musical anthology of flower songs, especially since these were written as a 25th anniversary present. Britten used the poems of five different poets, this one penned by George Crabbe, a 19th century doctor and clergyman who wrote poems, including this one, primarily in heroic couplets. Britten highlights the form by setting each line of each couplet separately. While much of the setting is syllabic,* Britten describes certain words with intertwining melismas;* his settings on poison'd and rolling up and down alludes to their nauseating character. All in all, the effect of his setting calls to my mind the original version of the movie "Nosferatu."

"To sit and dream," Langston Hughes (1901-1967)

To sit and dream, to sit and read,
To sit and learn about the world.
Outside our world of here and now —
Our problem world —
To dream of vast horizons of the soul,
Of dreams made whole,
Unfettered, free — help me!
All you who are dreamers, too,
Help me make
Our world anew.
I reach out my hand to you.

Many composers have set this Langston Hughes poem, but I find Powell's interpretation of the text to masterfully capture its mood of reverie and wishfulness with her subdued dynamic* reinforced by many solo iterations of the opening melody. She describes wonderfully in music the text I reach out my hand to you by having each voice successively enter with the same musical material at a different interval to represent hands reaching out in turn. After reiterating her opening line to unify the work, she ends it with a wonderfully complex jazz chord built of stacked thirds on the word dream to wistfully epitomize all of a dream's possibilities.

Veni Sancti Spiritus

Veni, Sancte Spiritus,
et emitte caelitus
lucis tuae radium.
Veni, pater pauperum,
veni, dator munerum
veni, lumen cordium.
Consolator optime,
dulcis hospes animae,
dulce refrigerium.
In labore requies,
in aestu temperies
in fletu solatium.
O lux beatissima,
reple cordis intima
tuorum fidelium.
Sine tuo numine,
nihil est in homine,
nihil est innoxium.
Come, Holy Spirit.
Send from heaven thy rays of light.
Come, Holy Spirit,
Emit forth the heavenly
Radiance of your light.
Come, father of the poor,
Come, giver of the gifts,
Come, light of the heart.
Greatest comforter,
Sweet guest of the soul,
Sweet consolation.
In labor, rest,
In heat, temperance,
In tears, solace.
O most blessed light,
Fill the inmost heart,
Of your faithful.
Without your spirit,
There is nothing in man,
Nothing that is not harmful.

Zanaida Robles set the ancient text "Veni Sancti Spriritus" for Pentecost, the final holiday of the Christian year that celebrates the beginning of the Christian Church by the descent of the Holy Spirit* upon all believers in Christ. We end our program with the same 5/4 meter with which it started in the Ayres, but, in the case of this piece, it illustrates the joy felt by believers in Christ at the creation of community. From very early times composers used the triple meter as an expression of the Trinity;* I also hear the alternation of two and then three in every measure as an expression of the Holy Spirit's forming the bridge between God the Father and Son and His believers. Robles' music moves between two melodic motifs, one setting the Latin text and the other the English text, each with its distinctive grouping within the 5/4 meter. At the end she combines the two themes, having the Soprano and Tenor voices singing the English refrain superimposed over the Alto and Bass voices' iteration of the Latin motif. ▣

© 2026 Mary Beekman. All rights reserved. No portion of this document may be quoted or reproduced without the author's permission.