Philip Lane

Five Shakespeare Lyrics

Shakespeare is so much the poet of all times and all climes that it occurred to me to view a sequence of song texts with a kaleidoscopic eye and create a variety of stylistic examples that grew characteristically out of each text - not to produce variety for its own sake but as a genuine collection of individual reactions. This apparent mixture of styles seems to me completely natural and acceptable, although only perhaps in film music is it normal for a composer to be able to express himself in quite such a disparate manner. Philip Lane

Five settings of Shakespeare texts for SSA choir and piano: Where the bee sucks (from 'The Tempest'); Tell me, where is fancy bred? (from 'The Merchant of Venice'); Blow, blow, thou winter wind (from 'As You Like It'); Full fathom five (from 'The Tempest'); It was a lover and his lass (from 'As You Like It').

Duration 11 minutes