Bur 1 Seven Sonnets of William Shakespeare

Contents:

1 My glass shall not persuade me I am old (Sonnet 22) - (6.9.1928)

2 Weary with toil I haste me to my bed (Sonnet 27) - (7.9.1928)

3 When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes (Sonnet 29) - (10.9.1928)

4 Full many a glorious morning have I seen (Sonnet 33) - (11.9.1928)

5 How heavy do I journey on the way (Sonnet 50) - (13.9.1928)

6 Is it thy will (Sonnet 61) - (13.9.1928)

7 How oft when thou, my music, music play’st (Sonnet 128) - (14.9.1928)

Editor's notes

Burrows’s settings of seven Shakespeare sonnets, with one exception, have not previously been published. The exception is When in disgrace with fortune, which the composer himself published in the 1950s through his own Bodnant Press, using a process of music typography that he invented.
The songs were written in a remarkably rapid creative burst between 6th and 13th October 1928. The inspiration for this fervid intensity – seven of a total of 93 songs composed by Burrows between March 1927 and December 1928 - was a pupil, Jane Vowles, a soprano, who came to study theory with Burrows during that period and subsequently with Patrick Hadley at the RCM. Many of the songs were dedicated to Jane, and naturally set with the soprano voice in mind. For these Shakespearean settings, the composer, in a note to Jane, suggests the use of a tenor or baritone.
Setting sonnets to music is a notoriously difficult exercise. Burrows’s fine sense of logic prompted him to adopt a clever device to conquer the somewhat rigid fourteen-line format of the sonnet. In several of his seven settings he weaves a thoughtful melody into the texture of the songs which lends convincing veracity to Shakespeare’s verbal conceits. This feature reaches perfection in Full many a glorious morning in a melody of exquisite pentatonic simplicity.
Because of their previous unavailability, these Shakespeare settings have had few performances. The only complete performance the editor knows of is that given by Dennis Sheppard (tenor and voice professor at the university) and himself, in Wheeler Concert Hall, University of Evansville, Indiana on the afternoon of Sunday, October 5th 1980. Two performances of My glass shall not persuade me I am old were given on 17 June 1993 by bass-baritone, Stephen Holloway and pianist, Christopher Reynold, in the Haldane Room, University College, London and by the same singer with the editor accompanying on 17 November 1993 in the Charles Wilson Building, University of Leicester. Full many a glorious morning is recorded on the British Music Society issue BMS 405 (MC) in a performance by Dennis Sheppard and the editor.