Commissioned by the Kangaroo Valley Arts Festival (Arts in the Valley) with funds from the Music Board of the Australia Council for the Arts
First performance by Yvonne Kenny (soprano), Andrea Katz (piano), Arts in the Valley, Kangaroo Valley, NSW, 21 April 2007.
Program note
Andrew Ford: Chimney-sweepers (2006) for voice and piano
This setting of the funeral oration from Shakespeare’s Cymbeline was composed for Yvonne Kenny, and commissioned by ‘Arts in the Valley’, the inaugural Kangaroo Valley Festival, with financial support from the Music Board of the Australia Council for the Arts, the Australian Government’s arts funding and advisory body.
© A.F
Fear no more the heat o’ the sun,
Nor the furious winter’s rages;
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages:
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
Fear no more the frown o’ the great;
Thou art past the tyrant’s stroke:
Care no more to clothe and eat;
To thee the reed is as the oak:
The sceptre, learning, physic, must
All follow this, and come to dust.
Fear no more the lightning-flash,
Nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone;
Fear not slander, censure rash;
Thou hast finish’d joy and moan:
All lovers young, all lovers must
Consign to thee, and come to dust.
No exorciser harm thee!
Nor no witchcraft charm thee!
Ghost unlaid forbear thee!
Nothing will come near thee!
Quiet consummation have;
And renowned be thy grave!
(Cymbeline, IV, 2)