Vamos a escuchar un poquito más de Britten antes de pasar a la última etapa de nuestro viaje, por el siglo XIX.
Benjamin Britten, además de componer varios ciclos de canciones a lo largo de su vida, también arregló para piano muchas canciones populares. Ya hemos escuchado
I wonder as I wander, que es una preciosidad. Vamos con otra:
She's like the swallow
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She's like the swallow that flies so high,
She's like the river that never runs dry,
She's like the sunshine on the lee shore,
I love my love and love is no more.
'Twas out in the garden this fair maid did go,
A-picking the beautiful primerose;
The more she pluck'd the more she pulled
Until she got her aperon full.
It's out of those roses she made a bed,
A stony pillow for her head.
She laid her down, no word did say,
Until this fair maid's heart did break.
She's like the swallow that flies so high,
She's like the river that never runs dry,
She's like the sunshine on the lee shore,
I love my love and love is no more.
Ahora, un hit del siglo XVI, atribuido al rey Enrique de Inglaterra, que aún sigue siendo muy popular:
Greensleeves
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Alas, my love, you do me wrong,
To cast me off discourteously.
For I have loved you well and long,
Delighting in your company.
Chorus:
Greensleeves was all my joy
Greensleeves was my delight,
Greensleeves was my heart of gold,
And who but my lady greensleeves.
Your vows you've broken, like my heart,
Oh, why did you so enrapture me?
Now I remain in a world apart
But my heart remains in captivity.
chorus
I have been ready at your hand,
To grant whatever you would crave,
I have both wagered life and land,
Your love and good-will for to have.
chorus
If you intend thus to disdain,
It does the more enrapture me,
And even so, I still remain
A lover in captivity.
chorus
My men were clothed all in green,
And they did ever wait on thee;
All this was gallant to be seen,
And yet thou wouldst not love me.
chorus
Thou couldst desire no earthly thing,
but still thou hadst it readily.
Thy music still to play and sing;
And yet thou wouldst not love me.
chorus
Well, I will pray to God on high,
that thou my constancy mayst see,
And that yet once before I die,
Thou wilt vouchsafe to love me.
chorus
Ah, Greensleeves, now farewell, adieu,
To God I pray to prosper thee,
For I am still thy lover true,
Come once again and love me.
Resulta que a nuestro amigo el dragón de trece colas comecaracoles le ha salido un amiguito

:
The crocodile
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(lo siento, tampoco he encontrado la letra de esta).
Por último, otra canción del ciclo
Tit for Tat, del que ya hemos escuchado
Autumn:
A song of enchantment
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A song of enchantment I sang me there,
In a green-green wood, by waters fair,
Just as the words came up to me
I sang it under the wild wood tree.
Widdershins turned I,singing it low,
Watching the wild birds come and go;
No cloud in the deep dark blue to be seen
Under the thick-thatched branches green.
Twilight came; silence came;
The planet of evening's silver flame;
By darkening paths I wandered through
Thickets trembling with drops of dew.
But the music is lost and the words are gone
Of the song I sang as I sat alone,
Ages and ages have fallen on me -
On the wood and the pool and the elder tree.
¿Es o no es bonito? ¿eh? ¿eh? Pensaba empezar hoy con los alemanes, pero el disco de Britten es tan chulo que no me he podido resistir.