Lyr Req: Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind (Shakespeare)

Subject: Lyric Request:
From:
Date: 28 Oct 96 - 10:06 PM

A song has been going through my mind all day long. I can only remember the first few lines (or maybe lines from the chorus - I don't know). Anyway, this is what I can remember:

Blow, blow thou winter wind Blow, blow thou winter wind Thou are not so unkind As man's ingratitude ....

Arg! That's all I can remember and I'll bet I've done that snippet about 1000 times today. I searched the database for blow, winter wind, and ingratitude, but had no luck. Thanks for your help.

Becky

Subject: RE: Lyric Request:
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 28 Oct 96 - 10:16 PM

Hi- I'm not familiar with it. If you do find it, send it along here; that way we'll all have it.

dick

Subject: RE: Lyric Request:
From:
Date: 29 Oct 96 - 12:19 AM

Blow, blow, thou winter wind, Thou art not so unkind As man's ingratitude; Thy tooth is not so keen, Because thou art not seen, Although thy breath be rude

Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly; Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly: Then, heigh-ho, the holly! This life is most jolly.

Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky, That dost not bite so nigh As benefits forgot: Thou thou the waters warp, Thy sting is not so sharp As friend remembered not.

Heigh-ho! sing ... &c.

Shakespeare, As You Like It, III, 2, 174-190.

Subject: ADD: Blow, blow, thou winter wind (Shakespeare)
From:
Date: 29 Oct 96 - 12:21 AM

Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man's ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude

Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly;
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh-ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly.

Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
That dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Thou thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend remembered not.

Heigh-ho! sing ... &c.

Shakespeare, As You Like It, III, 2, 174-190.

Subject: RE: Lyric Request:
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 29 Oct 96 - 09:03 PM

thanx much.I blush not to have remembered it (Altzheimers, anyone?)

Subject: RE: Lyric Request:
From: Becky
Date: 29 Oct 96 - 10:48 PM

Thanks, folks. I don't know where I got the tune from. Must be a deeply buried memory from my 4th grade music book or something. At least I have the comfort of knowing I'm not crazy - on this occassion anyway. ;-)

Becky

Subject: RE: Lyric Request:
From:
Date: 05 Nov 96 - 01:31 PM

Robin Williamson performs this on his X-mas album, "Winter's Turning". Great tune. Great Album!

Dick G, you can add that to the attribution, que no?

Subject: RE: Lyric Request:
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 05 Nov 96 - 08:30 PM

discographic info noted and accepted. thanx dick greenhaus

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blow, blow thou winter wind
From: GUEST,A choir man
Date: 05 Feb 04 - 11:26 PM

Hey we are singing that in choir!!!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blow, blow thou winter wind
From:
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 10:58 PM

Please help!!
               am playing Lord Amiens in a college production of "As You Like It", and need an audio of Blow Blow Thou Winter Wind.
                      Your help will be good karma and very much appreciated.
                         Britt

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blow, blow thou winter wind
From: Barry T
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 12:29 AM

Taylor-made midi sequence here...    ;-)

http://www.contemplator.com/tunebook/england/blowblow.htm

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blow, blow thou winter wind
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 17 Feb 05 - 09:33 PM

There have been several musical settings of Shakespeare's poem, BLOW, BLOW THOU WINTER WIND.

One by Ottilie Patterson was recorded by Chris Barber's Jazz Band.

One by Victor Young was recorded by Al Bowlly and by Bob Crosby & His Orchestra.

One by Alan Franks was recorded by Patty Vetta.

One by Dick Hyman was recorded by Maxine Sullivan and by Earl Wrightson.

--information from allmusic, which also has album titles, etc.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blow, blow thou winter wind
From: thespionage
Date: 17 Feb 05 - 09:54 PM

When I was Jaques in As You Like It last year, we did a folk-esque version of the original setting.

Russ

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blow, blow thou winter wind
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Feb 05 - 09:32 AM

Original setting? Does anyone really know what tune Shakespeare had in mind?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blow, blow thou winter wind
From: thespionage
Date: 18 Feb 05 - 05:58 PM

No, GUEST, but we have passed down the music that was probably used in the first productions of Shakespeare's plays. There are some recordings around and, I believe that thisis one of them. There are others around and I know that ours was written with one of those recordings in mind.

Russ
Practitioner of Thespionage and Folk Music

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blow, blow thou winter wind
From: Lighter
Date: 18 Feb 05 - 06:08 PM

Nice performance by the Folger Consort on the CD cited by Thespionage. However, this particular music was composed by Dr. Thomas Arne (1711-1748), so it's not what Shakespeare had in mind.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blow, blow thou winter wind
From: masato sakurai
Date: 18 Feb 05 - 08:00 PM

Arne's composition is at The Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music.

Title: Sonnets, the Subjects from Shakspere [sic].
Composer, Lyricist, Arranger: The Words by [William] Shakspere [sic]. Music by Dr. Arne.
Dr. Arne Publication: Philada: Blake's Cheap Music Store, No.13 So. Fifth St., 1855?]..
Form of Composition: strophic with chorus
Instrumentation: piano and voice
First Line: Blow, blow, thou winter wind, Thou art not so unkind as man's ingratitude

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blow, blow thou winter wind
From: Helen
Date: 18 Feb 05 - 08:23 PM

Britt,

I like Robin Williamson's version on the album, "Winter's Turning" as noted above in this thread. I've also heard a jazz version by Australian singer Cleo Laine. I like Williamson's better. Also I can highly recommend Barry Taylor's midi files which was recommended above - was that by Barry Taylor himself? Well he would be too modest to praise his own midi arrangements but they are the loveliest arrangements that I have found on the Web.

Also a lot of people pronounce the word wind (spelt "wynd" in the original) as "wined" as in "wined and dined" and they do this to rhyme with the word "unkind", but in fact it was probably the other way around. "Unkind" was probably pronounced "unkinned" (pronounced like "pinned") and "wind" pronounced as we know it now. The "y" in the "wynd" spelling doesn't mean that it should be pronouced as a "why" sound.

It makes more sense - as in ease of understanding - to promounce "wind" and "unkind" in the way that we say them rather than trying to prove a point which may be the wrong point. These words go back to Anglo-Saxon so that is the source of pronunciation guidelines.

Helen

Subject: RE: Req: Blow, blow thou winter wind (Shakespeare)
From: thespionage
Date: 20 Feb 05 - 12:12 AM

I must have chosen one with a new setting, but I know that the traditional setting exists.

Russ
Practitioner of Thespionage

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind (Shakespeare)
From:
Date: 01 Mar 05 - 06:26 PM

What a great site tis is!! I am desperately looking for a wonderful old LP..."Shakespoeare's Greatest Hits." It's a group of songs from plays and sonnets put together with contemporary (1960's) music. It's a great tool with which to introduce kids to th, "you can even sing Shakespeare" mind set. Might any of you know about it or own it?
Thanks,
Nudge

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind (Shakespeare)
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 11:51 AM

I'm quite sure I've read that no one knows what tunes were used for Shakespeare's songs. The only exceptions are "There was a lover and his lass" and perhaps one other, whose name escapes me now.

For me, it adds to the pleasure of a Shakespeare play when someone composes new music.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind (Shakespeare)
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 08:25 PM

Cleo Laine is Australian? Well, I'll be ......

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind (Shakespeare)
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 03 Mar 05 - 12:16 AM

I am in the midst of producing a NWC for Mudcat for this song, using Barry Taylor's excellent MIDI rendition of the version written by Dr. Thomas Arne (1711-1748). There are many, many implied slurred notes in the melody - which the MIDI version cannot provide - and hence there are many more dots than syllables.

Could someone please direct me to an MP3 version which includes the vocals so that I have a better chance of aligning the vocals with the dots.

It's a marvellous song, completely new to me, and the two part vocals look like a real joy to sing. As a bonus the chords are easy enough for a relative novice to play.

Regards, John

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind (Shakespe
From: Helen
Date: 03 Mar 05 - 02:05 AM

Well, I thought she was Australian. 'Scuse my ignorance, but it's been a long time since I heard anything of her and I know she did a lot of gigs here, back in the last century, so I just had it in my head that she was an Aussie. Better luck in her next life, I suppose!

Helen

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind (Shakespeare)
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 03 Mar 05 - 10:41 AM

Of course Ms Laine is an Aussie, just like Dames Nellie Melba, Joan Sutherland, June Bronhill, Kylie Minogue ..er, guess I'd better stop while I'm ahead.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind (Shakespeare)
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 03 Mar 05 - 12:23 PM

There's a version of this song in The Reliquary of English Song, which used to be a standard collection for young voice students to work from.

Anyone doing Shakespeare in college should consider going to the Music Dept. of the school and checking with the voice faculty there for sources for Shakespeare songs and coaching to help learn the necessary pieces.

Sorry. I've been out a bit, so just saw this thread. Hope I'm still in time to help someone.       Tw

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind (Shakespeare)
From: GUEST,Allan S.
Date: 03 Mar 05 - 04:50 PM

I am looking for the thread Howl and toe jolly rumbelo. That is it under??
Also info on "When I was but a little lad? with a heigh ho the wind and the rain for the wind it raineth every day."

HOw can I find the correct words???

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind (Shakespeare)
From: Dave Earl
Date: 03 Mar 05 - 05:03 PM

Try searching for Hal and Tow.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind (Shakespe
From: Helen
Date: 03 Mar 05 - 05:43 PM

I searched to this one on Google.com using the search term

"heigh ho the wind and the rain"

(including the double quotes for a phrase) and found heaps of sites with the words.


Wind and Rain
               Attributed to William Shakespeare

When that I was and a little tiny boy,
With heigh-ho, the wind and the rain,
A foolish thing was but a toy,
For the rain it raineth every day.

Chorus

With heigh-ho, the wind and the rain,
For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came to man's estate,
'Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate.

Chorus

But when I came alas to wive,
By swaggering could I never thrive.

Chorus

But when I came unto my beds,
The toss-pots still had drunken heads.

Chorus

A great while ago, the world began,
With heigh-ho, the wind and the rain,
But that's all one, our song is done,
And we'll strive to please you every day.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind (Shakespeare)
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 08:52 PM

If anyone is still interested, my favorite setting is the John Rutter setting. I think that it remains one of the great choral pieces of the 20th century. There is a solid version of it by a High School choir on youtube.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind (Shakespeare)
From: Artful Codger
Date: 28 Oct 11 - 08:54 PM

With the xmas frenzy drawing nigh, and with it a desperate need for "seasonal but not xmas/religious" songs to include in programs, I thought I'd revive this thread.

The (first) Mudcat MIDI, Barry Taylor's interpretation and the sheet music at the Levy collection contain obvious deviations from the tune which appears most often and nearly identically in earlier sources. The Oxford Book of Carols (1928, not the New...) contains Arne's melody as it was usually printed, though I suspect the accompaniment is not Arne's--not surprisingly, since he probably scored it for a consort.

There is a nice performance of the Arne setting (with only major deviation) on YouTube by David Keith Jones:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdwYIemj6CI

The OBC also has an original glee setting by R.J.S Stevens who, unlike Arne, included Shakespeare's "Heigh ho" chorus. Thomas Linley, in his Shakespeare's Dramatic Songs (mid 1800's?), extended Arne's setting to include a "Heigh ho" burden, but I haven't managed to find the music for it, though it seems to have been well-received.

I've also found mentions of settings by Charles Wood, Samuel Webbe (c.1830), Whiting, R. Schachner (1865) and Robert Schumann. There are many modern settings, the best known being by John Rutter and Roger Quilter.

If I get ambitious, I'll post an ABC for Arne's melody unadulterated, and perhaps a MIDI of Stevens' glee, for which I haven't yet found a sound clip.

Subject: Tune Add: BLOW BLOW THOU WINTER WIND (Shakespeare
From: Artful Codger
Date: 28 Oct 11 - 10:48 PM

Here's an ABC for Arne's unadulterated melody. You can feed it into the folkinfo.org ABC Converter.

X:1
T:BLOW, BLOW, THOU WINTER WIND
C:Text by Wm. Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act II, Scene 7
C:Music by Dr. Thomas Arne (1710-1778)
%%header \                 Blow, blow, thou winter wind
% Melody only
M:4/4
L:1/4
K:F
z | z4| z2 z c |: B/A/ G/F/ d F | (F E2) F | G/A/ B/G/ C B | (B A2) G |
w:1.~Blow, blow,* thou* win-ter wind,_ Thou art* not* so un-kind,_ Thou
w: * freeze,* thou* bit-ter sky,_ That dost* not* bite so nigh_ As
F F F F | =B B c F| (E2 D>) C | C3 c | c D ^F A | (c3/ d//_e// d) c |
w: art not so un-kind As man's in-gra--ti-tude; Thy tooth is not so keen___ Be-
w: ben-e-fits for-got, As ben-e-fits_ for-got: Though thou the wa-ters warp,___ Thy
c/B/ A/G/ B/A/ G/^F/ | (G/A/ B2) A/G/ | B/A/ G/F/ c/B/ A/G/ | (c2 d) F |
w: cause* thou* art* not* seen,__ Thy* tooth* is* not* so* keen,_ Be-
w: sting* is* not* so* sharp,__ Though* thou* the* wa--ters* warp,_ Thy
E F B A | (A G) z c | B/A/ G/F/ c _E | D d c/<A/ B/<G/ |
w: cause thou art not seen,_ Al-though* thy* breath be rude, Al-though* thy*
w: sting is not so sharp_ As friend* re--mem-ber'd not, As friend* re--
F2 G2 | (A/f/e/d/ c/B/) A/G/ | A/<F/ d/<B/ A/<c/ E/<G/ | F3 z |1 z2 z c :|2 z4 |]
w: breath be rude,_____ Al--though* thy* breath* be* rude. 2.~Freeze
w: mem-ber'd not,_____ As* friend* re--rem--ber'd* not. *
%
%%vskip .25in
%%multicol start
%%leftmargin 1.5in
%%begintext

1. Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man's ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.

%%endtext
%%multicol new
%%leftmargin 4.7in
%%begintext

2. Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
Thou dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend remember'd not.
%%endtext
%%multicol end
%%leftmargin 2.75in
%%begintext
       [Refrain; not sung in Arne's setting]
Heigh-ho! sing heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh-ho! the holly!
This life is most jolly.
%%endtext


Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind (Shakespeare)
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 28 Oct 11 - 11:12 PM

Back in 1971, the Combined Actors of Cambridge did a 'hippy' version of AYLI in Selwyn College Gardens. I was invited to be Amiens [the character in the Exiled Duke's forest court who sings most of the songs], & musical director, setting the words to traditional airs. I set Under The Greenwood Tree to The Gentleman Soldier, Lover & His Lass to The Little Beggarman, Wedlock Hymn to Kelvingrove, Take No Scorn to Hal-An-Tow, &c. Subject of this thread, Blow Thou Winter Wind, I found went v nicely to Here's Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy.

~Michael~

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind (Shakespeare)
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 29 Oct 11 - 07:15 AM

I recently wrote a "swing" song for my chorus called "Winter Blues" with a bridge that went"

Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
You know, thou art not so unkind,
But you know I really mind
The dark and the snow and it's twenty below
And my nose and my toes are so totally froze...

I was disheartened to find that not one of my singers knew where the first two lines came from!!!

I was a Shakespeare junkie from age 12 or 13 or so!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind (Shakespeare)
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 30 Oct 11 - 03:00 AM

I wonder if Will had any specific tune in mind for this song, as many consider him to have had for some of the more apparently "tradition-referential" in some in his plays, such as The Wind & The Rain in 12th Night, and Ophelia's St Valentine's Day & How Should I Your True Love Know? in Hamlet. Anyone come across any such suggestion re Blow Winter Wind anywhere?

I once asked Norma Waterson, while I was doing some work on origins of songs in Shax's plays, where the Watersons had got their first verse for Hal-An-Tow, which does not appear in the version sung in Helston, and which is the same as the one sung by the Forester in AYLI "Take no scorn to wear the horn..."; thinking I might have discovered some previously unnoted link. She told me I had it the wrong way round ~ the Watersons themselves had inserted the stanza they had got from AYLI in their version because they thought it sounded nice there as an intro verse to "Robin Hood & Little John are all gone to the fair·O)" &c!.

~Michael~

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind (Shakespeare)
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 30 Oct 11 - 03:19 AM

Despite thespionage's statement that a setting from Shakespeare's time has been passed down, Ross Duffin in his Shakespeare's Songbook (where he presents the tunes known or assigns other, often ballad or lute tunes tunes) says that "No indication of the original music has survived" (He sets this, with a little repetition of the first refrain line, to Goddesses).

MtheGM - I didn't realise they'd interpolated that. Back in the 80s I was living in Ethiopia and was asked to do an evening of Shakespearian song for a drama group there. One of the things I did was Hal-an-Tow on the basis of that quotation!

Mick