When Daisies Pied and Violets Blue - Laura Littlefield (1918)
- el año pasado
Laura Littlefield, lyric soprano
"When Daisies Pied and Violets Blue"
Victor 18528
1918
Words from Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost
Music by Thomas A. Arne
Pied, rhyming with side, means having two colors.
When daisies pied and violets blue
And lady-smocks all silver-white
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with delight,
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
heavenly tree, for thus mocks he:
“Cuckoo! Cuckoo, cuckoo!”
Unpleasing sound...
When shepherds pipe on oaten straws,
And merry larks are ploughmen’s clocks,
When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws,
And maidens bleach their summer frocks,
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
heavenly tree, for thus mocks he:
“Cuckoo! Cuckoo, cuckoo!”
Unpleasing sound...
Thomas Arne was born in the Covent Garden area of London and became the musical Director of Drury Lane Theatre.
Amongst his compositions are settings of Shakespeare songs which were written for stage performances of the plays.
Arne is most famous for Rule Britannia.
The first half of the song names different flowers which bloom in the meadows in spring. The cuckoo's call warns married men that they must not be too attracted to prettily dressed females.
The second half of the song describes shepherds playing pipes, larks waking the ploughmen, turtle doves, rooks and jackdaws starting to nest. The cuckoo's call agains warns married men to be careful--prettily dressed females can get men into trouble with wives.
The soprano's full name was Laura Comstock Littlefield.
She was born in 1882 in Malden, Massachusetts, which is between Boston and Salem.
She was a graduate of Radcliffe College in 1904 and went on to become a talented concert soprano heard in the Boston area from the World War I years to the mid- ‘20s.
She was a soloist with the Boston Symphony, the Händel and Haydn Society, the Cecilia Society of Boston.
She gave many recitals, once in Aeolian Hall in New York (in 1925).
The November 9, 1922, edition of Musical Courier announced her return to the United States from Europe, where she had studied with Jean De Reszke.
From 1930 to 1934, Littlefield was assistant Professor of Music at the University of Michigan.
She died in 1941 in Durham, North Carolina, as she was traveling to Florida.
"When Daisies Pied and Violets Blue"
Victor 18528
1918
Words from Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost
Music by Thomas A. Arne
Pied, rhyming with side, means having two colors.
When daisies pied and violets blue
And lady-smocks all silver-white
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with delight,
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
heavenly tree, for thus mocks he:
“Cuckoo! Cuckoo, cuckoo!”
Unpleasing sound...
When shepherds pipe on oaten straws,
And merry larks are ploughmen’s clocks,
When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws,
And maidens bleach their summer frocks,
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
heavenly tree, for thus mocks he:
“Cuckoo! Cuckoo, cuckoo!”
Unpleasing sound...
Thomas Arne was born in the Covent Garden area of London and became the musical Director of Drury Lane Theatre.
Amongst his compositions are settings of Shakespeare songs which were written for stage performances of the plays.
Arne is most famous for Rule Britannia.
The first half of the song names different flowers which bloom in the meadows in spring. The cuckoo's call warns married men that they must not be too attracted to prettily dressed females.
The second half of the song describes shepherds playing pipes, larks waking the ploughmen, turtle doves, rooks and jackdaws starting to nest. The cuckoo's call agains warns married men to be careful--prettily dressed females can get men into trouble with wives.
The soprano's full name was Laura Comstock Littlefield.
She was born in 1882 in Malden, Massachusetts, which is between Boston and Salem.
She was a graduate of Radcliffe College in 1904 and went on to become a talented concert soprano heard in the Boston area from the World War I years to the mid- ‘20s.
She was a soloist with the Boston Symphony, the Händel and Haydn Society, the Cecilia Society of Boston.
She gave many recitals, once in Aeolian Hall in New York (in 1925).
The November 9, 1922, edition of Musical Courier announced her return to the United States from Europe, where she had studied with Jean De Reszke.
From 1930 to 1934, Littlefield was assistant Professor of Music at the University of Michigan.
She died in 1941 in Durham, North Carolina, as she was traveling to Florida.