William Boyce - Forbear, O charming swain Forbear!

Solomon - a Serenata
William Boyce

12. Recitative

She:

Forbear, O charming swain, forbear!
Thy voice enchants my list'ning ear;
And while I gaze, my bosom glows,
My flutt'ring heart with love o'erflows,
The shades of night hang o'er my eyes,
And every sense within me dies.

She: Bronwen Mills

The Parley of Instruments
Roy Goodman

I uploaded the aria seperately as many people with want to hear that alone, but it really should follow on directly from this recitative, the aria is posted as a video response.

However this sensuous recitative is well deserving of a seperate upload and shows how much attention Boyce gave to a very important part of the artistic whole in terms of the dialogue - but a part which composers often neglected, concentrating solely on the arias. Almost all the recitatives in Solomon are accompagnato. Here the languid violin chords set the mood, while the voice engages in some word painting with the line "My flutt'ring heart". At the end, solemn chords descend in the minor mode as "every sense ... dies" leaving the singer languishing in the throws of love, as the following aria descibes.

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