Performed March 17, 2012; James Knox Sutterfield, conductor; Tom Morris, piano.
A Red, Red, Rose, Robert Burns
O my luve’s like a red, red rose, that’s newly sprung in June:
O my luve’s like the melodie, that’s sweetly play’d in tune.
As fair art thou, my bonnie lass, so deep in luve am I
I will luve thee still, my dear, till a’ the seas gang dry.
I will luve thee still, my dear, while the sands o’ life shall run.
Till the seas gang dry, my dear, and rocks melt with the sun!
As fair art thou, my bonnie lass, so deep in luve am I,
I will come again my luve, tho’ it were ten thousand mile!
A Red, Red Rose and Highland Mary both come from American composer James Mulholland’s set of Four Robert Burns Ballads. Robert Burns is generally considered the national poet of Scotland. Though he wrote great poetry in the Scots language, he also wrote in a “light Scots dialect” that was accessible to broader English-speaking audiences and has influenced writers, musicians, and even political and social thought well beyond the borders of his homeland. “A Red, Red Rose” is one his best known poems, set here with equal parts urgency and tenderness.