Music

Goe and catch!

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Goe, and catch a falling starre – John Donne

Goe, and catch a falling starre,
Get with child a mandrake’s root,
Tell me, where all past years are,
Or who cleft the Divel’s foot,
Teach me to heare
Mermaids singing
Or to keep envies stinging,
And finde
What winde
Serves to’advance an honest mind.

© Stuart Moffatt 1971

If thou beest borne to strange sights,
Things invisible to see,
Ride ten thousand daies and nights,
Till age snow white haires on thee,
Thou, when thou retorn’st, wilt tell mee
All strange wonders, that befell thee,
And sweare
No where
Lives a woman true and fair.

If thou findst one, let mee know;
Such a pilgrimage were sweet;
Yet doe not, I would not goe,
Though at next door we might meet,
Though shee were true, when you met her,
And last, till you write your letter,
Yet shee
Will bee
False, ere I come, to – two or three.

ChoralWiki and NoteWorthy Scriptorium

Schatten liebe

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Seraphine – Heinrich Heine

© Stuart Moffatt 1972

Schattenküsse, Schattenliebe,
Schattenleben, wunderbar!
Glaubst du, Narrin alles bliebe
Unverändet, ewig wahr?

Was wir lieblich fest bessessen,
Schwindet hin, wie Träumerein;
Und die Herzen, die vergessen,
Und die Augen schlafen ein.
sie schlafen ein.

Schattenküsse, Schattenliebe,
Schattenleben, wunderbar!
Glaubst du, Narrin alles, alles bliebe
Unverändet, ewig wahr?

ChoralWiki and NoteWorthy Scriptorium

The copyright of the music is held by Stuart Moffatt (© 1972).
The midi file was produced using Noteworthy Composer.
The mp3/ogg were produced using Myriad software.

Sweetest love

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Sweetest love – John Donne

Sweetest love, I do not go
For in weariness of thee
Nor in hope the world can show
A fitter love for me
But since that I
Must die at last, ’tis best
to use my self in jest
thus by feigned death to die.

© Stuart Moffatt 1971

2 Yesternight the sun went hence,
And yet is here today,
He hath no desire nor sense,
Nor half so short a way:
Then fear not me,
But believe that I shall make
Speedier journeys, since I take
More wings and spurs than he.

3 O how feeble is man’s power
That if good fortune fall,
Cannot add another hour,
Nor a lost hour recall!
But come bad chance,
And we join to it our strength,
And we teach it art and length,
Itself o’er us to advance.

4 When thou sigh’st, thou sigh’st not wind,
But sigh’st my soul away,
When thou weep’st, unkindly kind,
My life’s blood doth decay.
It cannot be
That thou lov’st me, as thou say’st,
If in thine my life thou waste,
Thou art the best of me.

5 Let not thy divining heart
Forethink me any ill,
Destiny may take thy part,
And may thy tears fulfill;
But think that we
Are but turned aside to sleep;
They who one another keep
Alive, ne’er parted be.

ChoralWiki and Noteworthy Scriptorium

The copyright of the music is held by Stuart Moffatt (© 1971).
The midi file was produced using Noteworthy Composer.
The mp3/ogg were produced using Myriad software.

O Rose!

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O Rose! Thou art sick! (*)

With singing voice
© Stuart Moffatt 1971
© Stuart Moffatt 1971

The Sick Rose
WIlliam Blake 28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827

O Rose, Thou art sick
The invisible worm
That flies in the night
that flies in, in the howling storm,
has found out thy bed of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love doth thy life destroy

Epitaph
Samuel T Coleridge 1772–1834

Stop, Christian passer by!
Stop, child of God,
And read with gentle breast:
Beneath this sod a poet lies,
or that which which once seemed he

O, lift one thought in prayer for S T C
That he who many a year with toil of breath
found death in life, may here find life in death!
Mercy for praise – to be forgiven for fame
He asked, and hoped, through Christ
Do thou the same!
Amen!

ChoralWiki and NoteWorthy Scriptorium

The copyright of the music is held by Stuart Moffatt (© 1971).
The midi file was produced using Noteworthy Composer.
The mp3/ogg were produced using Myriad software.

Komm!

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Komm’, du süsse Todesstunde

© Stuart Moffatt 1971

Komm’, du süsse Todesstunde,
Da mein Geist, Da mein Geist Honig speist
aus des Löwen Munde
Mache meinen Abschied süsse
Säume nicht, letztes licht,
Dass ich meinen Heiland küsse.
Amen.
Salomon Franck 1659-1725

ChoralWiki and NoteWorthy Scriptorium

The copyright of the music is held by Stuart Moffatt (© 1971).
The midi file was produced using Noteworthy Composer.
The mp3/ogg were produced using Myriad software.

Fragile Flower

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Fragile is my flower – Jenny Chan

© Stuart Moffatt 1971

The petals of my flower are fragile
The stem breaks all to easily
And the leaves droop forlornly
At the sound of a few unkind words.

Please do not crush my flower under foot;
the blossom took so long to cultivate
Please do not crush the life therein.
Don’t trample on my emotions.
© Jenny Chan 1971

Noteworthy Scriptorium

The copyright of the music is held by Stuart Moffatt (© 1971).
The midi file was produced using Noteworthy Composer.
The mp3/ogg were produced using Myriad software.

Puer natus

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All under the leaves – traditional English carol (Puer Natus)

© Stuart Moffatt 1970

All under the leaves, the leaves of life
I met with virgins seven,
And one of them was Mary mild
our Lord’s mother from heaven

O what are you seeking, you seven fair maids
All under the leaves of life?
Come tell, come tell me what seek you
All under the leaves of life

We’re seeking for no leaves, Thomas,
but for a friend of thine
We’re seeking for sweet Jesus Christ,
to be our friend and thine.

Go you down, go you down, to yonder town,
and sit in the gallery
And there you’ll find sweet Jesus Christ,
nailed to a big yew tree

So down they went to yonder town
as fast as feet could fall
And many a grievous bitter tear
from the virgins’ eyes did fall

O peace, Mother, O peace, Mother
your weeping doth me grieve
O I must suffer this, he said,
for Adam and for Eve

O how can I my weeping leave,
or my sorrows undergo
whilst I do see my own son die,
when sons I have no more

Dear Mother, Dear Mother, you must take John,
all for to be your son
And he will comfort you some times
Mother as I have done

O come thou, John, Evangelist,
thou’rt welcome unto me,
But more welcome my own dear son,
that I nursed upon my knee

Then he laid his head on his right shoulder
seeing death it struck him nigh
The Holy Ghost be with your soul,
I die, dear mother, I die

Then he laid his head on his right shoulder
seeing death it struck him nigh
The Holy Ghost be with your soul,
I die, dear mother, I die

O the rose, the rose, the gentle rose,
and the fennel that grows so green
God give us grace in every place
to pray for king and queen

Furthermore for our enemies all,
our prayers they should be strong,
Amen Good Lord! your Charitie
is the ending of my song

Amen


Traditional English carol

ChoralWiki and NoteWorthy Scriptorium

The copyright of the music is held by Stuart Moffatt (© 1970).
The midi file was produced using Noteworthy Composer.
The mp3/ogg were produced using Myriad software.

Deserted Island

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Emperors of the Island – Danny Abse

© Stuart Moffatt 1969

There is a story of a deserted Island
Where five men walked down to the shore
The story of the Island is
that three men would two men slay
Three men dug two graves in the sand
Three men stood on the sea wet rock
Three shadows moved away.

There is a story of a deserted Island
Where three men walked down to the shore
The story of the Island is
that two men would one men slay
Two men dug one grave in the sand
Two men stood on the sea wet rock
Two shadows moved away.

There is a story of a deserted Island
Where two men walked down to the shore
The story of the Island is
that one men would one men slay
One men dug one grave in the sand
One men stood on the sea wet rock
One shadow moved away.

There is a story of a deserted Island
Where one man walked down to the shore
The story of the Island is
that four ghosts would one men slay
Five ghosts dug one grave in the sand
No men stood on the sea wet rock
No shadows moved away.

© Danny Abse 1957
See also The Poetry Station where Danny Abse recites a different version of this poem. © The English and Media Centre

Noteworthy Scriptorium

The copyright of the music is held by Stuart Moffatt (© 1969).
The midi file was produced using Noteworthy Composer.
The mp3/ogg were produced using Myriad software.