Emma Kirkby: The Morning, Thomas Arne

Thomas Augustine Arne (1710-1778)

The Morning (1755)
Cantata

The glittering sun begins to rise
On yonder hill, and paints the skies.

The lark his warbling matin sings,
Each flower in all its beauty springs.

The village up, the shepherd tries
His pipe, and to the woodland hies.

Oh! that on th¹enamelled green
My Delia, lovely maide, were seen,
Fresher than the roses bloom,
Sweeter than the mead¹s perfume.

Go, gentle gales, and bear my sighs away,
To Delia¹s ear the tender notes convey.
As some lonely turtle his lost love deplores,
And with shrill echoes fills the sounding shores.
So I like him, abandoned and forlorn,
With ceasless plaints my absent Delia mourn.
Go, gentle gales, and bear my sighs along;
The birds shall cease to tune their evening song,
The winds to blow, the waving woods to move,
And streams to murmer e¹er I cease to love.
Not bubbling fountains to the thirsty swain,
Nor balmy sleep to labourers spent with pain,
Nor showers to larks, nor sunshine to the bee,
Are half so pleasing as thy sight to me.

Stereo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO4PuwO0OWw&fmt=18

Conductor: Michi Gaigg
L'Orfeo Barockorchester

Live recording (2006)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• arne
• thomas
• kirkby
• gaigg
• cantata
• soprano

[zimnaya]

Thank you so much for writing to me about Arne. I had no idea that he was Catholic nor that this prevented his writing church music (Tallis continued to produce his sublime music throughout the reign of Elizabeth I). I had often wondered why there was so little of Arne's music available - so it went up in the Covent Garden conflagration - a terrible tragedy. Hopefully some manuscripts will be found one day tucked away in a dusty corner of some private library...

Sincere thanks, Jules

[Thrax1982]

1. My comment from yesterday seems to have vanished mysteriously ;)

2. He did write some church music, but writing for the Catholic church was not a way to gain wealth and fame, I presume.

I just browsed through his work list at Wikipedia and it seems that most of his more interesting works are either lost or survive incompletely.

But it would be nice to hear his other cantatas at least. This here is cantata nr. 5 (out of 6 published in 1755)

[zimnaya]

An absolute favourite. Arne would doubtless have been considered a great composer had not the even greater luminary Georg Frideric arrived on the scene. There is something SO English about this cantata - for example, the imitation of birdsong, so different from Vivaldi.

Very enjoyable...

[InnocentParadis]

@jandismaszilenka Thanks for the reply, but Google searches don't confirm what you say.

[jandismaszilenka]

@InnocentParadis

Hi, I am an actor and playwright and he was a man I was very interested in....His story is told in the book 'The Provoked Wife' by Mary Nash...you can still get it on amazon...

[InnocentParadis]

@jandismaszilenka Wherefrom do you stories come ?

[JamesraynorII]

is this the complete cantata?

[jandismaszilenka]

He was actually a very odd man...accused of raping actresses...strange childhood...sister of Sussanah Cibber...Handels preferred Soprano...I have resreached him and recorded some of his work...his six concertos are fab...but I always get a shiver down my spine for those young actresses under the boards!

[jandismaszilenka]

@lasalleman

MMMmmm...Emma has a distinctly pure English voice that propounds innocence and fits the age of beauty, yet Serpentine melodies that prevailed in the Serpentine plots of theatre and the narrative art of Hogarth

[jandismaszilenka]

Sir, I have studied the life of Mr Arne for years...he was the sister of Susannah Arne.....Handel's fav contralto...his father was an undertaker and upholsterer...the rumour is that he was a philanderer of the worst kind....a wonderful account of his life and his associates is contained in a well resrearched book entitled 'The Provoked Wife' which is an account of his sister's life with Theo Cibber...the slightly odd son and actor of Colley Cibber

[ANGLOSAXONGOD]

Pure joy!

[thoroughbass]

@zimnaya

Arne IS agreat composer , but as you mentioned Händel , perhaps you would like to listen to his version of birdsong :

watch?v=TcXV51bLNFI here on youtube .

[thoroughbass]

9.00 am : A morning , that starts with Emma can only be a good one !