a song by Anne Boleyn's brother?
Chuk Marsha
There is a song I used to know that I am looking for however I have forgotten the title and was never sure of the composer.
I remember hearing that it was written by Anne Boleyn's brother on the occasion of her execution which would date it at 1536.
The first lines I believe are:
O death, o death rock me to sleep
Bring me to quiet rest
I should like to find this song again. Is there an anthology? My friend played harpsichord and I sang but I imagine it was originally sung with lute accompani-ment. Does anyone know its story? Who might have recorded it?
I'd appreciate any information. Thanks.
marsha chuk
Barbara Sands
I have a CD called "My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is" with David Cordier,
countertenor, the group Tragicomedia - Stephen Stubbs, director, on
Hyperion Records, which has the song you referred to for its last track
(track #20), attributed only to "Anyonymous, British Library Add. MS
15117," with this text given in the notes:
(Title) O Death, Rock Me Asleep
(Text)
O Death, rock me asleep,
Bring me to quiet rest,
Let pass my weary, guiltless ghost
Out of my careful breast.
Toll on thou passing bell,
Ring out my dolefull knell,
Let thy sound my death tell.
For I must die.
There is no remedy.
Die! For now I die.
***
BARBARA SANDS FZC...@prodigy.com
ECrownfiel
In article <4u2ih3$9...@epervier.CC.UMontreal.CA>, ch...@ERE.UMontreal.CA
(Chuk Marsha) writes:
It's on the CD "In the Streets and Theatres of London: Elizabethan Ballads
and Theatre Music" by the Musicians of Swanne Alley on Virgin Veritas, VC
7 90789-2. The program notes by Patricia Adams Nordstrom read:
"The anonymous song _O Deathe rock me asleepe_ has been popularly credited
to Anne Boleyn, although there is no evidence that she composed either the
poem or the music. It is alluded to in Shakespeare's _King Henry IV,_ Pt.
2 (Act II, Scene 4) when Pistol says:
"What! shall we have incision? Shall we imbrue?
Then death shall rock me asleep, abridge my doleful days!
"The sombre, hypnotic tolling of the passing bell can be heard in the lute
accompaniment."
Hope this helps,
Elizabeth Crownfield
Warren Steel
Chuk Marsha wrote:
>There is a song I used to know that I am looking for however I have
>forgotten the title and was never sure of the composer.
>I remember hearing that it was written by Anne Boleyn's brother on the
>occasion of her execution which would date it at 1536.
>The first lines I believe are:
>O death, o death rock me to sleep
>Bring me to quiet rest
>I should like to find this song again. Is there an anthology? My friend
>played harpsichord and I sang but I imagine it was originally sung
>with lute
Elizabeth Crownfield and others have given information on
recordings and publications. It's worth noting that there
are at least *two* settings of this anonymous text found in
manuscripts, both consort songs (voice and viols). One is
in triple time, with an ostinato bass suggesting the
"passing bell"; the other, in duple time, was transcribed
and published by Peter Warlock (for voice and string quartet)
in his collection of Elizabethan songs:
O Death, rock me asleep,
Bring me to quiet rest;
Let pass my weary guiltless ghost
Out of my careful breast.
Toll on the passing bell,
Ring out the doleful knell;
Let the sound my death tell.
Death doth draw nigh--
Sound my death dolefully,
For now I die.
--
Warren Steel mu...@olemiss.edu
Department of Music University of Mississippi
URL: http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/~mudws/