Faire in a Morne - Thomas Morley

Subject: Faire in a Morne - Thomas Morley
From: GUEST,Ascelinne
Date: 12 Sep 17 - 08:28 PM

Does anyone have any information on sound recordings of this song? I heard it decades ago on a collection of Morley's madrigals. I started tracking down info on this song several years ago and found that you have to use the Middle English spelling to even begin.

I can still hear the melody in my head when I read the text:

Fair in a morn, O fairest morn:
was ever morn so fair?
When as the sun, but not the same
that shineth in the air,
But of the earth, no earthly sun,
and yet no earthly creature,
There shone a face, was never face
that carried such a feature.

And on a hill, O fairest hill;
was never hill so blessed,
there stood a man, was never man
for no man so distressed.
This man had hap, O happy man;
no man so happ'd as he,
For none had hap to see the hap
that he had happ'd to see.

Andas he beheld, this man beheld,
he saw so fair a face,
The which would daunt the fairest here
and stain the bravest grace.
Pity, he cried, and Pity came,
and pitied for his pain,
That dying would not let him die,
but gave him life again.

For joy whereof he made such mirth
that all the world did ring,
And Pan with all his nymphs came forth
to hear the shepherds sing.
But such a song sung never was,
nor ne'er will be again,
Of Phillida the shepherds queen,
and Corydon the swain.

Subject: RE: Faire in a Morne - Thomas Morley
From: Anglo
Date: 13 Sep 17 - 09:32 AM

Well, a very quick Google search finds this. Do try Google. It can be quite useful.

Here

Subject: RE: Faire in a Morne - Thomas Morley
From: leeneia
Date: 13 Sep 17 - 10:58 AM

HI, Ascelinne. Thanks for asking about this song. I like it, and I've printed it out to play with friends this Sunday.

Subject: RE: Faire in a Morne - Thomas Morley
From: GUEST,Ascelinne
Date: 13 Sep 17 - 11:14 AM

Anglo - Of course, I started with Google.

leeneia - What source are you printing from? I am trying to find the music or at least an audio performance to listen to. Are you going to record your Sunday performance?

Subject: RE: Faire in a Morne - Thomas Morley
From: Stewart
Date: 13 Sep 17 - 03:43 PM

Here it is
music score (pdf)

recording on youtube

Cheers, S. in Seattle

Subject: RE: Faire in a Morne - Thomas Morley
From: Anglo
Date: 13 Sep 17 - 08:47 PM

Yes, Swanne Alley are very nice performers. That's the recording I linked to up top.

Subject: RE: Faire in a Morne - Thomas Morley
From: leeneia
Date: 13 Sep 17 - 09:59 PM

Ascelinne, there is a branch of the great Wiki organization called The Choral Public Domain Library (CPDL), and I found "Fair in the Morn" there in several formats.

Copy and paste this URL and see if it takes you right to the page about the song:

http://www1.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Fair_in_a_morn_(Thomas_Morley)

Click on the tiny purple icon for Adobe Acrobat.

Of the two versions there, I chose the second, because the first version has a glitch on the first note. If you have Adobe Acrobat, the sheet music should come up right away and be printable.

If that doesn't work, come back here and we will do something else.
============
Stewart, where did you get that peculiar sheet music?

Subject: RE: Faire in a Morne - Thomas Morley
From: Stewart
Date: 13 Sep 17 - 10:14 PM

yes it is peculiar. It's from a midi file converted through noteworthy composer. It should be in the key of F, but NWC doesn't recognize that and just converted every Bb to A#. I'd have to manually change every A#, but I didn't have time or energy to do that. Sorry.

S, in Seattle

Subject: RE: Faire in a Morne - Thomas Morley
From: leeneia
Date: 13 Sep 17 - 10:54 PM

Try putting the key of F in the front, (K, F, F)then on the Tools menu, say Audit Enharmonic Notes.

I use Noteworthy too. My version, oddly enough lists F# before F as a key. That's why there are two F's above.

Subject: RE: Faire in a Morne - Thomas Morley
From: Stewart
Date: 13 Sep 17 - 11:33 PM

voila!

the score (pdf)

thanks, I've learned something new

S. in Seattle

Subject: RE: Faire in a Morne - Thomas Morley
From: GUEST,Ascelinne
Date: 14 Sep 17 - 09:56 AM

OK. Thanks. The updated PDF looks good. I had been looking at IMSPL and didn´t know about this other site. I found the youtubes from Swan Alley a few days ago. But take another look. Doesn't it say that these videos are not available? That's the notice I am getting. So I still don't have an audio recording - and I know that there have been a few made. When did Swan Alley record this? The recording I heard was back in the 80's and could have been recorded earlier than that.

Subject: RE: Faire in a Morne - Thomas Morley
From: Anglo
Date: 14 Sep 17 - 12:50 PM

Ascelinne, Stewart's link, and mine, lead to the same YouTube page. The "video" is just a still of the album cover, but the audio plays. Unless you're in some country where this may be blocked for copyright reasons you should be able to hear it.

There's another recording by the Folger consort here:
Folger recording.

Try that one.

Subject: RE: Faire in a Morne - Thomas Morley
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Sep 17 - 01:20 PM

I watch a lot of youtube videos without problems. Both of these links are saying "This video is not available" and there are no controls for starting the videos. Must be a technicality - like the country it's allowed to be played in? That's my guess.

At least I have more info on who recorded it - Folger Consort and Swan Alley. A youtube seach of "fair in a morn" brings up two dance videos but these look like they are open air rather than studio quality. And not complete arrangements.

Oh well. I'm further along now than I was before. Now I've got the sheet music. Nice.

Subject: RE: Faire in a Morne - Thomas Morley
From: GUEST,Ascelinne
Date: 14 Sep 17 - 08:16 PM

With leeneia's post, that makes two pdf arrangements. I might even find a way to record this myself.

Thanx.

Subject: RE: Faire in a Morne - Thomas Morley
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 14 Sep 17 - 09:10 PM

You're welcome. It's so nice when we can share music and play it.

Subject: RE: Faire in a Morne - Thomas Morley
From: Stewart
Date: 14 Sep 17 - 11:08 PM

And here's an audio clip(mp3) of the first verse from the Swanne Alley recording.

S. in Seattle

Subject: RE: Faire in a Morne - Thomas Morley
From: GUEST,Ascelinne
Date: 14 Sep 17 - 11:39 PM

Stewart - This sounds like the same arrangement I heard decades ago. Same arrangement, but it was performed with lute with male voice. How was this originally scored by Morley's hand? Lute with tenor? Or lute with alto? Has anyone posted Morley's arrangement yet?

leeneia - How goes your arrangement on Sunday? Is that the one with six staves? And why six staves?