The Sonnet Sessions continue...

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William Shakespeare, Sonnet XVII

Who will believe my verse in time to come, If it were filled with your most high deserts? Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tomb Which hides your life, and shows not half your parts. If I could write the beauty of your eyes, And in fresh numbers number all your graces, The age to come would say 'This poet lies; Such heavenly touches ne'er touched earthly faces.' So should my papers, yellowed with their age, Be scorned, like old men of less truth than tongue, And your true rights be termed a poet's rage And stretched metre of an antique song: But were some child of yours alive that time, You should live twice, in it, and in my rhyme.

Music: Ralph Vaughan Williams, “Fantasia on Greensleeves“ from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928 Nino Rota, 'Love Theme' from Romeo and Juliet (1968)

The Sonnet Sessions continue... (Don't know what was going on with the audio - or my voice - this week! )

Please get in touch any time: [email protected].

William Shakespeare, Sonnet XVI But wherefore do not you a mightier way Make war upon this bloody tyrant, Time? And fortify your self in your decay With means more blessed than my barren rhyme? Now stand you on the top of happy hours, And many maiden gardens, yet unset, With virtuous wish would bear you living flowers, Much liker than your painted counterfeit: So should the lines of life that life repair, Which this, Time's pencil, or my pupil pen, Neither in inward worth nor outward fair, Can make you live your self in eyes of men. To give away yourself, keeps yourself still, And you must live, drawn by your own sweet skill.

Music: Ralph Vaughan Williams, “Fantasia on Greensleeves“ from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928 Sergei Prokofiev, "Balcony Scene" from Romeo and Juliet, op. 64, 1938

The Sonnet Sessions continue.... Please get in touch any time: [email protected].   William Shakespeare, Sonnet XVWhen I consider every thing that grows Holds in perfection but a little moment, That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows Whereon the stars in secret influence comment; When I perceive that men as plants increase, Cheered and checked even by the self-same sky, Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease, And wear their brave state out of memory; Then the conceit of this inconstant stay Sets you most rich in youth before my sight, Where wasteful Time debateth with decay To change your day of youth to sullied night, And all in war with Time for love of you,As he takes from you, I engraft you new.   Music: Ralph Vaughan Williams, “Fantasia on Greensleeves“, from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928 Hector Berlioz, La Mort d' Ophélie, Cecilia Bartoli (soprano), Myung-Whun Chung (piano)

The Sonnet Sessions continue.... Please get in touch any time: [email protected].   William Shakespeare, Sonnet XIV Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck; And yet methinks I have Astronomy, But not to tell of good or evil luck, Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons' quality; Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell, Pointing to each his thunder, rain and wind, Or say with princes if it shall go well By oft predict that I in heaven find: But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive, And, constant stars, in them I read such art As truth and beauty shall together thrive, If from thyself, to store thou wouldst convert;    Or else of thee this I prognosticate:    Thy end is truth's and beauty's doom and date.   Music: Ralph Vaughan Williams, “Fantasia on Greensleeves“, from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928 Nino Rota, Nocturne from The Taming of the Shrew (1967), conducted by Carlo Savina

The Sonnet Sessions continue.... Please get in touch any time: [email protected].   William Shakespeare, Sonnet XIII O! that you were your self; but, love, you are No longer yours, than you your self here live: Against this coming end you should prepare, And your sweet semblance to some other give: So should that beauty which you hold in lease Find no determination; then you were Yourself again, after yourself's decease, When your sweet issue your sweet form should bear. Who lets so fair a house fall to decay, Which husbandry in honour might uphold, Against the stormy gusts of winter's day And barren rage of death's eternal cold?    O! none but unthrifts. Dear my love, you know,    You had a father: let your son say so.   Music: Ralph Vaughan Williams, “Fantasia on Greensleeves“, from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928 Opening to Act III of Sir John in Love, New Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Meredith Davies.

The Sonnet Sessions continue (with apologies for the audio issues this week!)

You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. You can subscribe to the podcast at  iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn.

William Shakespeare, Sonnet XII

When I do count the clock that tells the time,  And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;  When I behold the violet past prime,  And sable curls all silver’d o’er with white; When lofty trees I see barren of leaves  Which erst from heat did canopy the herd, And summer’s green all girded up in sheaves  Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard,  Then of thy beauty do I question make,  That thou among the wastes of time must go, Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake And die as fast as they see others grow;     And nothing ‘gainst Time’s scythe can make defence    Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.    Music:Ralph Vaughan Williams, “Fantasia on Greensleeves“, from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928

The Sonnet Sessions continue... You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. You can subscribe to the podcast at  iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn. William Shakespeare, Sonnet XI

 As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou grow'st In one of thine, from that which thou departest; And that fresh blood which youngly thou bestow'st, Thou mayst call thine when thou from youth convertest. Herein lives wisdom, beauty, and increase; Without this folly, age, and cold decay: If all were minded so, the times should cease And threescore year would make the world away. Let those whom nature hath not made for store, Harsh, featureless, and rude, barrenly perish: Look whom she best endowed, she gave the more; Which bounteous gift thou shouldst in bounty cherish: She carved thee for her seal, and meant thereby, Thou shouldst print more, not let that copy die. Music: Ralph Vaughan Williams, “Fantasia on Greensleeves“, from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928 Ambroise Thomas, "Entr'acte" from Hamlet, opera adapted from William Shakespeare, 1868

The Sonnet Sessions continue...

You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. You can subscribe to the podcast at  iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn.

William Shakespeare, Sonnet X

 For shame deny that thou bear'st love to any, Who for thy self art so unprovident. Grant, if thou wilt, thou art beloved of many, But that thou none lov'st is most evident: For thou art so possessed with murderous hate, That 'gainst thy self thou stick'st not to conspire, Seeking that beauteous roof to ruinate Which to repair should be thy chief desire. O! change thy thought, that I may change my mind: Shall hate be fairer lodged than gentle love? Be, as thy presence is, gracious and kind, Or to thyself at least kind-hearted prove: Make thee another self for love of me, That beauty still may live in thine or thee. 

Music: 

Ralph Vaughan Williams, “Fantasia on Greensleeves“, from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928

Ambroise Thomas, "Entr'acte" from Hamlet, opera adapted from William Shakespeare, 1868

The Sonnet Sessions continue...

You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. You can subscribe to the podcast at  iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn.

William Shakespeare, Sonnet IX

 Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye, That thou consum'st thy self in single life? Ah! if thou issueless shalt hap to die, The world will wail thee like a makeless wife; The world will be thy widow and still weep That thou no form of thee hast left behind, When every private widow well may keep By children's eyes, her husband's shape in mind: Look what an unthrift in the world doth spend Shifts but his place, for still the world enjoys it; But beauty's waste hath in the world an end, And kept unused the user so destroys it. No love toward others in that bosom sits That on himself such murd'rous shame commits. 

Music: 

Ralph Vaughan Williams, “Fantasia on Greensleeves“, from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928

Benjamin Britten, Corpus Christi Carol - performed by boy soprano Sebastian Carrington 

Thomas Tallis, Spem in Alium (1750)

The Sonnet Sessions continue...

You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. You can subscribe to the podcast at  iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn.

William Shakespeare, Sonnet VIII

 Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly? Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy: Why lov'st thou that which thou receiv'st not gladly, Or else receiv'st with pleasure thine annoy? If the true concord of well-tuned sounds, By unions married, do offend thine ear, They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear. Mark how one string, sweet husband to another, Strikes each in each by mutual ordering; Resembling sire and child and happy mother, Who, all in one, one pleasing note do sing: Whose speechless song being many, seeming one, Sings this to thee: 'Thou single wilt prove none.' 

Music: 

Ralph Vaughan Williams, “Fantasia on Greensleeves“, from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928

Thomas Tallis, Spem in Alium (1750)