Songs of Love and Protest on traditional texts
for mixed chorus a cappella
Score PDF
While the title may call to mind a mixed assortment—love songs and protest songs—it implies rather a synthesis: the lover makes protestations of faithfulness, or rebels against infidelity, inconstancy, and death; while in the protest songs, behind the anger and irony, lies also the sorrow of a disappointed patriot.
Though often pointedly relevant, all texts are traditional, culled word-for-word from centuries-old sources.
Recordings (below): live broadcast from the Semper Opera House by the Dresdner Kammerchor, 31 October 2006 as part of the city’s 800th Jubilee.
Long Night
One of the oldest English lyrics with surviving music, but here with an entirely new setting in a distorted pseudo-Mediaeval style.
lyrics
Mirie it is while sumer ilast
with fugheles song.
Oc nu necheth windes blast
and weder strong.
Ei, ei! What this night is long
and ich with well michel wrong
soregh and murne and fast.It is merry while summer lasts,
with the song of birds.
But now the wind’s blast approaches,
and strong weather.
Ay, ay! How long this night is,
and I, most unjustly,
sorrow and mourn and fast.
Floating Stanzas (The True Lover’s Farewell I)
“Floating stanzas” are generic lines—not tied to a specific storyline—that “float” from song to song. In the United States, these two verses have spun off to become a familiar stand-alone text.
lyrics
O fare thee well my own true love,
O fare thee well a while.
I’m going away, but I’m coming back
If I go ten thousand mile.Ten thousand mile, my own true love,
Ten thousand mile or more,
The sea may freeze, and earth will burn,
If I never more return.
Jack Hall
This song survives in many versions, often as “Sam Hall.” I imagine the proud defiance of a man unjustly convicted of murder (“I killed a man, they said…”) though the historical Jack Hall was executed in 1701 for burglary. The old-fashioned curse “damn your eyes” here provides an interesting twist on the moral concept of bearing witness.The setting traverses many styles, from modernist tone-clusters to Renaissance polyphony, but the only actual musical quotation—of a well-known doo-wop tune—is at the very end.
lyrics
Oh my name it is Jack Hall
And I killed a man they said
And I smashed his bloody head
And I left him going dead
Damn your eyes!And this shall be my knell:
God damn you all to hell
And I hope you sizzle well
Damn your eyes!
Floating Stanzas (The True Lover’s Farewell II)
These two verses are often identified as part of the ballad “Lord Randall” but are more aptly classified as floating. This song also “floats” within the set, a moment of calm between the angry songs before and after.
lyrics
Who will shoe your little feet, Who will glove your little white hand And who will kiss your red rosy cheeks When I am in some foreign land?Papa will shoe my little feet,
Mama will glove my little white hand,
Nobody will kiss my red rosy cheeks
When you are in some foreign land.
The Young Man Who Travelled
This setting is full of musical quotations, from the “Sailor’s Hornpipe” and U.S. Marine Hymn to Handel and Rossini. However, the familiar tunes are distorted to fit the prevailing octatonic scale, lending them an eerie and fatalistic edge.As with all the songs in the set, the old text is unaltered from the original source. It is dedicated to Dennis Kucinich, author of U.S. HR 2459, calling for the creation of a cabinet-level Department of Peace.
lyrics
When I was a little boy I travelled up and down
And I chanced to stop in a seaport town.
The drums they beat and the cannon did roar
And the people there told me the wars weren’t o’er.In come the soldier, so very neat and fine,
“Come landlady, draw me a pint of good wine,
And we’ll charge it to the borrow along with the old score,
And I’ll pay you for your liquors, when the wars are o’er.”In come the barber, a-wishing little harm
With a great long beard as long as your arm.
Saying, “If I don’t get a kiss from the girl I adore,
I’ll be hanged if I shave till the wars are o’er.”In come the blacksmith, greatest trade of all,
Sold his bed and blankets for some iron and coal.
Now he has to sleep upon the cold frozen floor,
He may lay there and freeze till the wars are o’er.Along come the tailor, and loud did he say,
“The way I make my living is by four and six a day,
Mending up old clothes all ragged and torn,
And they never will get new ones till the wars are o’er.”Along come the teacher, with his cunning looks,
He said he made his living by the teaching of his books.
He has got a list of scholars and he can’t get no more,
And he can’t get the school till the wars are o’er.”In come the devil with a Yankee on his back,
He picked up the soldier to balance his pack.
The Yankee rode behind and the soldier rode before,
And away they went a-jogging till the wars are o’er.