It Was a Lover and His Lass by Thomas Morley

Performed at St. Cecilia at the Tower VIII on June 8, 2019.
Performed by Court and Country.

Court and Country learned "It Was a Lover and his Lass" in honor of the 400th Anniversary of William Shakespeare's death in April 2016. We bring it back to you this year in honor of the challenge by Their Majesties to honor Shakespeare during their reign. Music was an impor tant part of Shakespeare's plays, but it is rather rare that we still have available both the words and music of a piece used in one of them. The song appears in "As You Like It," but it is uncertain whether it was composed for the play, or whether it was an already popular song chosen to use in the play. Thomas Morley printed this piece in his First Book of Ayres or Little Short Songs (1600).

Our arrangement was provided in the public domain by Stile Antico, created from a version originally in lute tablature. The song has a typical pastoral theme, very much like the play itself. It imagines happy young men and women with their sweethearts in an idyllic springtime country setting.

Morley