And is this all? What one poor kiss?
Title: And is this all? What one poor kiss?
Year Completed: 2020
Duration: 4 mins
Instrumentation: SATB Chorus and keyboard accompaniment (piano or harpsichord)
Credit: Commissioned by Canzona, Kathleen Allen director
Premiere: Canzona, Winnipeg March 1 2020, Kathleen Allen director
Program Note:
I adapted Mary Dering's solo vocal composition And this is all? What one poor kiss? for this work. I was initially drawn to the cheeky-sounding lyrics of this unsatisfied lover.The simple vocal melody and accompaniment of the original music was a wonderful skeleton to dress in a contemporary fashion. Lady Mary Dering (1629-1704) was an English composer who attended a "ladies university of the female arts" and later studied under composer, Henry Lawes. Some of her works are purportetly the first known published compositions by a woman in England. In adapting her works, I was constantly trying to imagine what life for Lady Mary would have been like as a woman, a composer, a mother, a wife, a daughter... I feel a deep sense of gratitude for her and the other women composers who have come before me and blazed many hard trails to the current day.
Text
And is this all? What one poor kiss?
Thinkst thou my heart contented is with this gratuity?
No Chloris, no,
or give me all that Lovers love and pleasure call.
Or by a free and full deny,
permit me to despare
and so depairing die.