When my love swears
Oscar van Hemel (1892 - 1981): Four Shakespeare sonnets for mixed choir (1961). Vocaal Ensemble PANiek.
- Music to hear (Sonnet 8)
Music to hear, why hear’st thou music sadly?
Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy.
Why lovest thou that which thou receivest not gladly,
Or else receivest with pleasure thine annoy?
If the true concord of well-tunèd sounds,
By unions married, do offend thine ear,
They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds
In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear.
Mark how one string, sweet husband to another,
Strikes each in each by mutual ordering,
Resembling sire and child and happy mother,
Who, all in one, one pleasing note do sing.
Whose speechless song, being many, seeming one,
Sings this to thee: «Thou single wilt prove none». - No longer mourn (Sonnet 71) [1:32]
No longer mourn for me when I am dead
Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell
Give warning to the world that I am fled
From this vile world with vilest worms to dwell;
Nay, if you read this line, remember not
The hand that writ it; for I love you so,
That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot,
If thinking on me then should make you woe.
O, if (I say) you look upon this verse,
When I (perhaps) compounded am with clay,
Do not so much as my poor name rehearse,
But let your love even with my life decay,
Lest the wise world should look into your moan,
And mock you with me after I am gone. - The little love-god (Sonnet 154) [3:34]
The little Love-god lying once asleep,
Laid by his side his heart-inflaming brand,
Whilst many nymphs that vowed chaste life to keep
Came tripping by; but in her maiden hand
The fairest votary took up that fire
Which many legions of true hearts had warmed;
And so the General of hot desire
Was, sleeping, by a virgin hand disarmed.
This brand she quenched in a cool well by,
Which from Love’s fire took heat perpetual,
Growing a bath and healthful remedy,
For men diseased; but I, my mistress’ thrall,
Came there for cure and this by that I prove,
Love’s fire heats water, water cools not love. - When my love swears (Sonnet 138) [5:09]
When my love swears that she is made of truth,
I do believe her, though I know she lies,
That she might think me some untutored youth,
Unlearnèd in the world’s false subtleties.
Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,
Although she knows my days are past the best,
Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue:
On both sides thus is simple truth suppressed.
But wherefore says she not she is unjust?
And wherefore say not I that I am old?
Oh, love’s best habit is in seeming trust,
And age in love loves not to have years told.
Therefore I lie with her and she with me,
And in our faults by lies we flattered be.
La prima strofa si trova nella commedia di Shakespeare Misura per misura (atto IV, scena 1a), rappresentata per la prima volta nel 1604; non sappiamo su quale melodia fosse cantata. Prima e seconda strofa sono nel dramma Rollo Duke of Normandy, or The Bloody Brother, scritto in collaborazione da John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, Ben Jonson e George Chapman in data imprecisabile (comunque non prima del 1612). Non è dato di sapere se la seconda strofe sia un’aggiunta di Fletcher oppure se tanto Shakespeare quanto Fletcher si siano rifatti a una canzone popolare in voga ai loro tempi. 
The first stanza is featured in Shakespeare’s play Measure for Measure (act 4, scene 1), first represented in 1604; we do not know to what tune it was sung. Both the stanzas feature in the play Rollo Duke of Normandy, or The Bloody Brother, co-written by John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, Ben Jonson and George Chapman and performed at an unspecified date (though not earlier than 1612). It is not known whether the second stanza is an addition by Fletcher or whether both Shakespeare and Fletcher drew on a popular song in vogue in their time. 
Asprilio Pacelli (c1570 - 4 maggio 1623): Media nocte, mottetto a 12 voci (da Sacrae cantiones, 1608). Ensemble Dodecantus, dir. Marina Malavasi. 
la regina gioiosa 