There isn’t much time left in April, so I thought we’d take this Madrigal Monday to have a listen to Thomas Morley’s “April is in my Mistress Face” a staple of Arbor Consort’s repertoire for years now.
The lyrics are as follows:
April is in my mistress’ face,
And July in her eyes hath place;
Within her bosom is September,
But in her heart a cold December.
The Arbor Consort often includes a second verse in our performances:
Oh were it July all the year
Then April showers I would not fear
Nor blight that falleth in September
Nor frost that chills in cold December
In doing the research for this posting, I discovered that the second verse is not original to the madrigal, but was added in a later publishing by Thomas Oliphant (a Scottish writer and music editor and member of the Madrigal Society in Britain in the 1800s).
Hope you enjoy the music!
- Sara
