Uploaded September 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
The selections are as follows:
00:00 The British Grenadiers: the lyrics, from around 1600, celebrate the soldiers in question as being greater than Alexander, Hercules, Hector, or Lysander.
01:23 Go from My Window: a woman bids her love to depart from her window since "he can't have a lodging here." There are a handful of lute variations on this folk song, from which I have drawn in making my arrangement.
03:26 Love Will Find Out the Way: this anonymous song from the first half of the 17th century describes the lengths to which love (personified as male) will go to achieve his ends, one of which implies freeing a woman, "whom Love doth honor," though she have "a thousand guards upon her."
04:36 When the King Enjoys His Own Again: this song has its origins in the English Civil War (1642 - 1651) and foretells that civil strife and war will not end until the King (Charles I, 1640 - 1649) "enjoys his own again."
05:58 March of the Merionethshire Men: I have not succeeded in finding lyrics for this song or any other information about it, beyond the fact that it is a traditional Welsh song. Merionethshire was a former county in Wales.
07:26 I Care Not for These Ladies: the speaker in this song by Thomas Campion (1557 - 1620) states that he does not desire women who must be "wooed and prayed" but Amaryllis, "the wanton country maid."
08:50 What If a Day: this song is also attributed to Thomas Campion. The lyrics point to the ephemerality of all things human for "Fortune, honor, beauty, youth are but blossoms dying" (hence, the painting of the Ages of Man).
09:59 Old King Cole: this melody is not the one by the same name that John Gay (1685 - 1732) wrote for his two-act opera "Achilles," and I do not know whether it bears any relation to the nursery rhyme. I have not been able to find any reference to it beyond the source in which I found it.
11:23 Heart's Ease: this song is mentioned in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" (Act IV, Scene V), but apparently no lyrics have survived for it. The melody dates from the 16th century.
12:42 From Oberon in Fairyland: Oberon was a mythological king who makes several appearances in Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream." The melody I have arranged is by R. J. S. Stevens (1757 - 1837).
The selections are as follows:
00:00 The British Grenadiers: the lyrics, from around 1600, celebrate the soldiers in question as being greater than Alexander, Hercules, Hector, or Lysander.
01:23 Go from My Window: a woman bids her love to depart from her window since "he can't have a lodging here." There are a handful of lute variations on this folk song, from which I have drawn in making my arrangement.
03:26 Love Will Find Out the Way: this anonymous song from the first half of the 17th century describes the lengths to which love (personified as male) will go to achieve his ends, one of which implies freeing a woman, "whom Love doth honor," though she have "a thousand guards upon her."
04:36 When the King Enjoys His Own Again: this song has its origins in the English Civil War (1642 - 1651) and foretells that civil strife and war will not end until the King (Charles I, 1640 - 1649) "enjoys his own again."
05:58 March of the Merionethshire Men: I have not succeeded in finding lyrics for this song or any other information about it, beyond the fact that it is a traditional Welsh song. Merionethshire was a former county in Wales.
07:26 I Care Not for These Ladies: the speaker in this song by Thomas Campion (1557 - 1620) states that he does not desire women who must be "wooed and prayed" but Amaryllis, "the wanton country maid."
08:50 What If a Day: this song is also attributed to Thomas Campion. The lyrics point to the ephemerality of all things human for "Fortune, honor, beauty, youth are but blossoms dying" (hence, the painting of the Ages of Man).
09:59 Old King Cole: this melody is not the one by the same name that John Gay (1685 - 1732) wrote for his two-act opera "Achilles," and I do not know whether it bears any relation to the nursery rhyme. I have not been able to find any reference to it beyond the source in which I found it.
11:23 Heart's Ease: this song is mentioned in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" (Act IV, Scene V), but apparently no lyrics have survived for it. The melody dates from the 16th century.
12:42 From Oberon in Fairyland: Oberon was a mythological king who makes several appearances in Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream." The melody I have arranged is by R. J. S. Stevens (1757 - 1837).
