Icicles

by William Shakespeare

commissioned by Alexandria Choral Society 2004

This work is one of a pair of pieces, Daisies & Icicles. The two pieces could be described as variations upon each other. Daisies is set for children's choir and piano.

sheet music (PDF master score with permission to print or download an authorised number of copies) available via this website: GBP 1.50 per print-out

• Daisies
• Blow blow thou winter wind
• Fairies' Song
• The lusty horn
• Music to hear
• So hallow'd and so gracious is the time
• Take O take those lips away
• This sceptr'd isle

When icicles hang by the wall,
And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,
And Tom bears logs into the hall,
And milk comes frozen home in pail,
When blood is nipped, and ways be foul,
Then nightly sings the staring-owl,
Tu-who;
Tu-whit, tu-who: a merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

When all aloud the wind doth blow,
And coughing drowns the parson's saw,
And birds sit brooding in the snow,
And Marian's nose looks red and raw,
When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,
Then nightly sings the staring owl,
Tu-who;
Tu-whit, tu-who: a merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.
(William Shakespeare, from Love's Labour's Lost)

• choral - mixed voices accompanied