The Three Ravens

Thomas Ravenscroft

Thomas Ravenscroft’s The Three Ravens is among the most beloved English ballads. First published in 1611,
the ballad speaks of human nobility, the cruel indifference of nature, and the power of loyalty and love. These characteristics drew me to incorporate the song into my 2012 opera Dog Days.

Dog Days—with libretto by Royce Vavrek, based on the short story by Judy Budnitz—quotes and otherwise
references the ballad’s musical themes and narrative motifs. The three ravens, for instance, become the three men of the opera; the slain knight becomes the character “Prince,” and the “wondrous one” of the song
becomes the opera’s protagonist, “Lisa.” The opera also references deer—though it is a “dead deer” instead of a “fallow doe”—and the knight’s hounds via the opera’s title. The Three Ravens encapsulates the opera in some sense, and the opera reconditions the song’s sad but hopeful tale.

Lasting approximately seven minutes, this arrangement of The Three Ravens was first performed on October
16, 2016 at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, to celebrate the release of the original cast recording of Dog Days. Lauren Worsham, Marnie Breckenridge, and Cherry Duke sang; Eileen Mack played bass clarinet.

– David T. Little
Weehakwen, NJ
9.21.17