for upper voices, optional narrator, and piano or strings and piano Five Shakespeare Songs brings together the work of the late Sir David Willcocks ('England's choir master') and the Bard, in a suite of well-loved upper-voice pieces with favourite texts, optional readings, and music of unsurpassed charm. With accompaniments for piano or for strings and piano, the songs can be performed with a newly discovered accompaniment for piano quintet. The effect is a concert piece worthy of the world's stage.
Who is Silvia?
Under the Greenwood tree
Full fathom five
Fear no more the heat o' the sun
It was a lover and his lass
Born in 1919, David Willcocks began his musical career as a chorister at Westminster Abbey, later winning scholarships to Clifton College and King's College, Cambridge. Following war service, he was elected Fellow of King's College, and later became Organist of Salisbury and Worcester Cathedrals, conducting the Three Choirs Festival whilst at Worcester. Willcocks returned to King's College, Cambridge as Director of Music from 1957-1974, with the first collection of his arrangements in the Carols for Choirs series publishing in 1961. He was Director of Music at the Royal College of Music from 1974-1984, and was knighted in the Queen's Silver Jubilee Honours List in 1977. Willcocks also conducted The Bach Choir for 38 years, retiring in 1998. Sir David died in September 2015.
