about
Rebecca Fischer, violin
Oriana Hawley, viola
originally composed for Gabby Diaz, solo violin
This subtitle is taken from Shakespeare’s As You Like It. Gabby (by nature a happy person) and I share a particular affinity for the aching, yearning side of artistic expression. I wanted to write her something that she could really ache through, so I turned to Shakespeare, who really knows how to grab your soul. One thing I learned from him – a useful piece of wisdom that can help an artist in any medium! – is that in all tragedy there is an element of comedy, and vice versa. As You Like It is, I suppose, technically a comedy, but it is rife with achings, yearnings, poignancies. In it the character Amiens, one of the Lords of the Duke, is asked to offer a song to comfort and entertain, but the words he sings takes us to one of Shakespeare’s darkest depictions of the human soul:
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 faining, 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:
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy Sting is Not So Sharp
As friend rememb’red not.
Heigh-ho, sing, &c.
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