A MUSICAL DREAME
My duo with soprano
Alison Ponsford- Hill
(Monteverdi Choir) is named after a book of lute songs by Robert Jones published in 1605.
Together, we focus primarily on the late Elizabethan and Jacobean lute-song repertoire, a unique and rich treasure trove of words beautifully wedded to music, that was set in trend by John Dowland's First Booke of Ayres of 1597.
We also explore the later repertoire of the 17th century by Henry Purcell and John Blow, and songs of the 19th and 20th centuries for voice and guitar.
Alison and I have worked together for nearly 20 years.
Here are a few programmes we have enjoyed performing
over the years:
Oh Mistress Mine
Songs for the theatre, including settings of texts by Shakespeare by Robert Johnson or Thomas Moreley, or matching Elizabethan folk tunes to songs by him as in the case of the Willow Song from Othello.
Full fathom five (The Tempest)
Where the bee sucks (The Tempest)
The willow song (Othello)
Let us howl (Duchess of Malfi)
Ophelia's mad songs (Hamplet)
Oh mistress mine (Twelfth Night)
The Cypress Curtain of the Night
Songs and lute solos centred around the themes of night and sleep, that were often used as a metaphor for death or melancholy, and sometimes as a repose.
Care charming sleep
Mr Dowland's midnight
A Dreame
Come heavy sleep
Fairest Isle
Songs by Robert Johnson and Henry Purcell accompanied on the theorbo.
Sweeter than roses
Music for a while
An evening hymn
If music be the food of love