Programme note
A Season to Sing is a choral re-imagining of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, created by acclaimed British composer Joanna Forbes L’Estrange to mark its 300th anniversary in 2025. Under the auspices of the Royal School of Church Music, the work was co-commissioned by fifty-five choirs worldwide, receiving as many performances across five continents in its first year. The composer herself conducted the South African première, Californian première and Australian première, which took place in the Sydney’s iconic Opera House.
At once familiar and freshly imagined, A Season to Sing honours Vivaldi’s exuberant Baroque spirit while offering choirs a work that feels vibrant and new. The fact that the piece has entered the repertoire of community choruses, choral societies, chamber choirs, church choirs, upper voice choirs and school choirs alike is testament to composer’s understanding of choral music from a singer’s perspective. As with all of Forbes L’Estrange’s music, excellent learning resources are available.
The carefully chosen texts from poetry, scripture, liturgical sources, and Vivaldi’s own Italian sonnets enhance the original programmatic intent of each movement whilst allowing the singers to inhabit the energy, colour and drama that originally belonged to the string orchestra. Several wordless passages bring delightful injections of humour, such as in Spring’s whistled birdsong chorus, the body percussion storm of Summer, and the teeth-chattering of a freezing cold Winter. The middle movement of Winter is performed entirely with jazz scat syllables, a throwback to the composer’s seven years at the helm of The Swingle Singers.
A Season to Sing opens and closes with Forbes L’Estrange’s own settings of Ecclesiastes 3: To every thing there is a season. Movement 1 sets the scene for Spring whilst movement 14 incorporates the Dona nobis pacem from the Requiem Mass, bringing a much-needed final message of peace in our troubled world.
SPRING
1. A Time to Dance Words: Ecclesiastes 3:1-4
To every thing there is a season,
and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up
that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance!
2. Welcome Spring Words: Thomas Morley ‘Now is the month of Maying”, Zechariah 10:1, Song of Solomon 2:11-13
The spring, clad all in gladness,
Doth laugh at winter’s sadness,
Fa la la…
The flowers from earth are springing
And now the birds are singing,
They’re singing to welcome spring.
We welcome spring and so we sing:
The flowers from earth are springing
And now the birds are singing,
They’re singing to welcome spring.
Ask the Lord for rain,
For the springtime rain,
Thunderstorms and rain,
Showers of rain swell the grain,
Ask the Lord for springtime rain.
The flowers from earth are springing
And now the birds are singing,
They’re singing to welcome spring.
Arise, my love, my fair one, come away,
For lo the winter is past
And spring is come at last,
Fa la la…
The flowers from earth are springing
And now the birds are singing,
They’re singing to welcome spring.
3. Music, Sweet Music Words:Eliza Cook poem ‘Spring’ vv2-3
Music, sweet music,
Sounds over all the earth;
One glad choral song
Greets the primrose’s birth;
The lark soars above,
With its shrill matin strain;
The shepherd boy tunes
His reed pipe on the plain.
Music, sweet music,
Cheers meadow and lea;—
In the song of the blackbird,
The hum of the bee;
The loud happy laughter
Of children at play
Proclaim how they worship
Spring’s beautiful day.
4. To the Bagpipe’s Sound Words:Thomas Morley ‘Now is the month of Maying”
To the bagpipe’s sound
The nymphs tread out their ground,
Fa la la…
Fie then, why sit we musing,
Youth’s delight refusing?
Fa la la…
To the bagpipe’s sound
The nymphs tread out their ground,
Fa la la…
Fie why sit we musing,
Youth’s delight refusing?
Fie why sit we musing?
To the bagpipe’s sound
The nymphs tread out their ground,
Fa la la…
SUMMER
5. Sing Cuccu! Words: Emily Brontë poem Moonlight, Summer Moonlight v1, Anon. Sumer is icumen in
Summer moonlight,
All soft and still and fair.
Lhude sing cuccu!
Well singes thu, cuccu!
Ne swik thu naver nu!
Summer moonlight,
All soft and still and fair.
Thunder, lightning,
Very frightening,
Shepherd, you should run
And find shelter from the storm!
6. Trees Lending Shelter Words: Emily Brontë poem ‘Moonlight, Summer Moonlight vv1-2
The solemn hour of midnight
Breathes sweet thoughts everywhere,
But most where trees are sending
Their breezy boughs on high,
Or stooping low are lending
A shelter from the sky.
7. Summer Storm Words: Psalm 77:17-18
The clouds poured out water;
The sky sent out sound;
The voice of thunder was in Heav’n;
The lightening lightened all the world;
Earth trembled and shook!
AUTUMN
8. Song of Harvest Words: Henry Alford hymn ‘Come, ye thankful people, come’, Exodus 34:21
Come, ye thankful people, come
Raise the song of harvest,
All safely gathered in.
Come, ye thankful people, come
Raise the song of harvest home,
‘Ere the winter storms begin.
On the seventh day you shall rest,
Even during ploughing season,
Even during harvest season.
Come, ye thankful people, come
Raise the song of harvest,
All safely gathered in.
Come, ye thankful people, come
Raise the song of harvest home.
9. Falling Autumn Leaves Words: Emily Brontë poem ‘Fall, Leaves, Fall' v1
Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me,
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
10. Make a Joyful Noise Words: Psalm 100:1-2, Psalm 150:3-6
Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands,
Praise Him upon the trumpet,
Praise Him upon the timbrel,
Praise Him upon the organ,
Praise Him upon the cymbal.
Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.
Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands,
Praise ye the Lord,
Praise and serve the Lord with gladness,
Come before His presence with song.
Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands.
WINTER
11. Winter Freeze Words: Antonio Vivaldi sonnet ‘L’Inverno’
Agghiacciato tremar trà nevi algenti
Al Severo Spirar d’ orrido Vento,
Correr battendo i piedi ogni momento;
E pel Soverchio gel batter i denti;
Correr battendo i piedi ogni momento.
12. Cosy Indoors (while outside it pours) Words: Swingle-style scat
13. While Earth Remaineth Words: Genesis 8:22
While the Earth remaineth
Seed time and harvest
Shall not cease.
Seed time and harvest and cold and heat,
While Earth remaineth they shall not cease.
Seed time and harvest and cold and heat
And summer, winter, day, night,
All shall not cease.
Music, sweet music,
Cuccu! Cuccu!
Make a joyful noise unto the Lord.
Spring, summer, autumn, winter
Shall never cease.
14. A Time of Peace Words: Ecclesiastes 3: 1& 5-8, Requiem Mass
To every thing there is a season,
and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to cast away stones,
and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace,
and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate;
a time of war, no more;
and a time (Dona nobis pacem),
A time of peace.