SATB + piano

NOTE FROM THE COMPOSER

Some years ago, I wrote a solo voice cycle titled Love’s Waning Seasons.  I have a graduate degree in voice performance, and have always loved the solo vocal repertoire and the infinite possibilities of expression and color the human voice can produce. Subsequent to writing the cycle, I decided to set the fourth movement, “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?” for SATB and piano. I love this text because it has an innocent, and respectfully eloquent view of love and emotional admiration for another.

TEXT

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou are more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
…
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
…
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Sonnet 18, William Shakespeare