The Shakespeare In The Music
I am absolutely loving the poems John Rutter has collected for his cycle of songs “When Icicles Hang.” My curiosity was piqued by the two pieces that are songs from Shakespeare plays. It seems I am not the only one in our group who is trying to make sense of the piece “Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind.” There is that beautiful haunting melody and harmony that Rutter has created that seems to belie the meaning of the words. “Loving mere folly” ? “This life is most jolly” ? The tune doesn’t sound very jolly! So, is this wistfulness? Irony? Sarcasm, as someone suggested?
So back to the source I went! – to Shakespeare’s “As You Like It.” It’s one of his comedies of contrast- between the social constructs of “civilized” court life, and courting life (!) and the forest primeval where everything gets turned around, and true identities are revealed.
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here’s obviously a lot more going on in this play, but for our purposes, I go to the Act II, scene 7, where the song we are singing appears. The noble Orlando is exiled from court, his life at stake. He and his manservant Adam escape in to the deep forest. Hungry and tired and lost, Orlando comes upon a small band of folk gathering around a meal. He draws his sword, ready to do any kind of battle necessary to secure food and shelter. To his surprise, he is greeted with kindness, and he and Adam are invited to share in the meal they are eating. It seems that in the untamed wilderness, Orlando finds more kindness than he did at court.
Entertainment for the forest meal is provided. A song is sung:
Blow, blow thou winter wind.
Thou are not so unkind as man’s ingratitude.
Thy tooth is not so keen because thou art not seen,
although thy breath can 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.
Though thou the waters warp, thy sting is not so sharp
As friends remembered not.
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.
And now I quote from internet “research” – from sparknotes.com, for what it is worth:
“This melancholy poem might seem strange in the middle of a comedy about such knotty issues as human relationships and love. The poem suggests that human nature is far crueler than mother nature. “Heigh Ho! The Holly!’ lauds the virtues of nature, and the holly which is an evergreen. An evergreen, in turn, maintains its green color despite the harshness of the weather around it… (so) despite human nature’s fickle character, beauty and virtue persist, and “this life is most jolly.”
Hmmmm….. I’ll be thinking about this song differently now when we sing it!
– Kathy Musser