O MISTRESS MINE

The texts form a narrative arc illuminating the ever-changing nature of love, from the time we first encounter it as youths to our awareness of its many varying qualities as we age. Shakespeare’s words evoke the joy of experiencing love, but also touch upon its deeper complexities as the most profound and perhaps the most difficult of all human experiences.

Opening the cycle, “Lawn as white as driven snow” is a peddlar’s song highlighting the wonderful gifts young lads might give their sweethearts, youthful love and its expression through the giving of gifts. The four songs at the center of the cycle – “O Mistress Mine”; “If music be the food of love”; “Take, o take those lips away”; and “Tell me where is Fancy bred” – all present a change from youthful delight to a darker and more worldly understanding of love’s power to torment the heart. By the time we reach the end of the cycle in “Fear no more the heat o’ the sun” we find that love has deepened and grown to a place where even death cannot break it.

Brian Asawa, who was to have performed the premiere of this work which was written for him, died unexpectedly on April 18, 2016, just a few months before the premiere date. The final words of “O Mistress Mine” aptly express the love felt for him by so many:

        No exorciser harm thee!
        Nor no witchcraft charm thee!
        Ghost unlaid forbear thee!
        Nothing ill come near thee!
        Quiet consummation have;
        And renownéd be thy grave!