{"id":720,"date":"2020-05-03T14:13:59","date_gmt":"2020-05-03T13:13:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/databassist.com\/music\/?p=720"},"modified":"2020-05-06T17:39:30","modified_gmt":"2020-05-06T16:39:30","slug":"when-lads-go-a-maying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/databassist.com\/music\/archives\/720","title":{"rendered":"When lads go a-maying"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n

Being probably the best-known English madrigal of all, Thomas Morley’s Now is the month of maying<\/em> is often performed but rarely performed well (singing it with the neatness it deserves is a considerable challenge). It may seem emblematic or even a caricature of the whole madrigal genre, which in modern times has had an image problem. You’d be forgiven for thinking that the winks and smirks in this and many other madrigals about pleasures, and the impressions of silliness from ‘fa la la la la’ refrains sung at breakneck speed, must be in the grand tradition of English alternative comedy, as if the Cambridge Footlights club had been in full swing by the 1580s. Those who did so well to champion the madrigal in the 1970s and 80s will indeed seem, when now we look back a generation, like cousins of the Monty Python crew (try The King’s Singers in a BBC documentary from 1984 here<\/a>). There’s even a song called ‘No, no, no, no, Nigella’, and one about loving a female sparrow named Philip … you couldn’t make it up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then you read a little history and realize that the English didn’t make it up — the Italians did (or at least started it all). The earliest English madrigals, in their subject-matter as well as their music, were based closely on Italian models that had become fashionable from printed collections circulating in London, a craze that coincided with the general influence of Italian poetry on the Elizabethan poets. Numerous Italian madrigals were published in the late 1580s with their music intact but retexted with English lyrics. Others were paraphrased, considerably transformed with new music as well as new poetry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now is the month of maying<\/em>, published in 1595, is one of those cases: Morley had based it on So ben mi ch\u2019ha bon tempo<\/em> by Orazio Vecchi. It is a balletto<\/em> (‘ballett’ in English), a species of Italian madrigal that emulates animated dancing. That Morley’s song sounds quite unlike the Vecchi model is testament to his ingenuity: the resemblance lies primarily in the duple metre, rhythm and phrasing, scarcely at all in melody or harmony. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

This is the first in a series of posts about songs of love. Today: anticipated desire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now is the month of Maying\nWhen merry lads are playing, Fa la la.\nEach with his bonny lass\nUpon the greeny grass. Fa la la.\n\nThe Spring, clad all in gladness,\nDoth laugh at Winter\u2019s sadness, Fa la la.\nAnd to the bagpipe\u2019s sound\nThe nymphs tread out their ground, Fa la la.\n\nFie then! Why sit we musing\nYouth\u2019s sweet delight refusing? Fa la la.\nSay, dainty nymphs, and speak:\nShall we play Barley-break? Fa la la.<\/font><\/pre>\n\n\n\n