Sonnet 128

Text by William Shakespeare

Excerpt

MIDI

The vivid imagery and powerful emotion of Shakespeare’s 128th sonnet resonate throughout D. M. Gardner’s evocative setting of the text. Few pieces elicit as genuine a response from the listener and fewer still are remembered as sweetly by the ear.

How oft, when thou, my music, music play’st,
Upon that blessed wood whose motion sounds
With thy sweet fingers, when thou gently sway’st
The wiry concord that mine ear confounds,
Do I envy those jacks that nimble leap
To kiss the tender inward of thy hand,
Whilst my poor lips, which should that harvest reap,
At the wood’s boldness by thee blushing stand!
To be so tickl’d, they would change their state
And situation with those dancing chips,
O’er whom thy fingers walk with gentle gait,
Making dead wood more bless’d than living lips.
     Since saucy jacks so happy are in this,
     Give them thy fingers, me thy lips to kiss.

Premiere: University of Nebraska at Omaha - University Chorus

Difficulty: Intermediate

Original Print Size: (8.5 x 11); PORTRAIT - Score: pgs 2-13; Oboe: pg 12

Approx. 3 minutes and 51 seconds in length

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