So hallow'd and so gracious is the time

by William Shakespeare

this piece was written for Sargent Cancer Care for Children's Christmas Carol Campaign 2003

sheet music (PDF master score with permission to print or download an authorised number of copies) available via this website: GBP 2.50 per print-out

• Blow blow thou winter wind
• Daisies
• Fairies' Song
• The lusty horn
• Icicles
• Music to hear
• Take O take those lips away
• This sceptr'd isle

Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long;
And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad,
The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.

(Marcellus, in Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 2)

• choral - mixed voices accompanied