Thea Musgrave: Four Madrigals By Thomas Wyatt (SATB)

'Four Madrigals By Thomas Wyatt', set for SATB voices by Thea Musgrave.

Programme Note:
"These four madrigals, settings of poems by the 16th century poet Sir Thomas Wyatt, are one of the composer's very earliest works. They were written in Paris in 1953 while she was a student of Nadia Boulanger.

They were originally composed for the Saltire Singers who first performed them in St Andrews, Scotland in March 1953. Since then many choruses (including the Kings Singers) have included them in their repertoires and they have been widely performed.

The texts are poems by Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1552). They describe a lover's progress. At first he is miserably trapped "in love's snare" but at last he frees himself from this hopeless love: "Hate whom ye list, for I care not"."