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A Madrigal Setting

Music composed by James A. Tweedie for William
Shakespeare’s “Come Away” from Twelfth Night.
Words by William Shakespeare are below.

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Come away, come away, death,
__And in sad cypress let me be laid.
Fly away, fly away, breath;
__I am slain by a fair cruel maid.
My shroud of white, stuck all with yew,
____O, prepare it!
My part of death, no one so true
____Did share it.

Not a flower, not a flower sweet,
__On my black coffin let there be strown.
Not a friend, not a friend greet
__My poor corpse, where my bones shall be thrown.
A thousand thousand sighs to save,
____Lay me, O, where
Sad true lover never find my grave,
____To weep there!

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James A. Tweedie is a retired pastor living in Long Beach, Washington. He has written and published six novels, one collection of short stories, and three collections of poetry including Mostly Sonnets, all with Dunecrest Press. His poems have been published nationally and internationally in The Lyric, Poetry Salzburg (Austria) Review, California Quarterly, Asses of Parnassus, Lighten Up Online, Better than Starbucks, Dwell Time, Light, Deronda Review, The Road Not Taken, Fevers of the Mind, Sparks of Calliope, Dancing Poetry, WestWard Quarterly, Society of Classical Poets, and The Chained Muse. He was honored with being chosen as the winner of the 2021 SCP International Poetry Competition.

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6 Responses

  1. Paul A. Freeman

    Well, that’s different. I enjoyed it very much.

    I’m sure Shakespeare, wherever he may be, is giving you the nod – and a wink.

    Reply
  2. K.E.S.

    The music sounds simple and true, as if it actually could have been composed for this piece by Shakespeare in his time. I like it, and thanks for sharing your composition.

    Reply
  3. Margaret Coats

    Nice work, James. Sounds like two parts with two voices in each part. Did you do all the singing yourself in multitrack recording? It would be interesting to know how you approached the making of a suitable composition. I recall many years ago hearing poet Robert Bly sing a Shakespeare sonnet (solo melody, of course). He had looked through many tunes of the period, and chosen one where the long notes in each melodic line matched the long vowels in each line of the poem. I can’t say I remember any of his own poems from that reading, but he certainly enchanted a group of college students with some very simple singing. Your composition lets us hear more of Shakespeare as he might have been heard on stage in his time.

    Reply
    • James A. Tweedie

      Margaret,

      This is a very bad recording of me singing soprano, alto, tenor and bass in a four-part madrigal setting of the kShakespeare song/poem. Please imagine the piece transposed at least a third higher being sung by two women and two men with distinctive voices that don’t mush the sound into a foggy mess. I’m on an out-of-state trip at the moment. When I get home I’ll email you the score along with an instrumental setting of the notes. The musical style is an attempt to emulate that of a typical Elizabethan madrigal. (But without the seemingly prerequisite “fa-la-las” and “hey nonny nonnys” of the period.) It is actually a much better piece of music than is represented in this recording. Thanks for the thoughtful and extended comment. The background instrument is a harp doubling the voice parts and pretending to be a lute.

      Reply

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