A Grass-Green Pillow

SSAATTBB, a cappella

Color Madrigals was originally conceived because of a commission during my 10-year residency with The Singers - Minnesota Choral Artists. Artistic Director Matthew Culloton had asked for something short on the theme of love and, having found something by English poet, John Keats, I felt that the work was a bit shorter than we had envisioned. That original text mentioned a color, so I thought I might write something else using a Keats text that mentioned a color and thus was born the first “volume” of my so-called color madrigals; the green and red movements. This was followed pretty immediately by a commission from the Summer Singers (Vicki Peters, conductor) for the purple and yellow movements and, later that year, Matt asked to finish out the set with the blue and orange madrigals.

Program note: If there were a “standard” subject for poetry centered on the season of spring it would probably be the subject of love and, more specifically, new love.  Luckily, the genius of Keats takes on this traditional theme with the amazing, poetic language and seamless rhyme he is known for.  I gravitated towards this particular text because of the symmetry between the first and second halves of the poem.  In the first two stanzas it sounds like the stereotypical, overzealous young man trying to woo a maiden who might be above him in social standing and may or may not return his sentiments.  However, once you reach the midway point (and especially in the last stanza), it suddenly becomes much more tender and romantic—as if he suddenly figures out the difference between lust and love.

I’d like to think he chooses the latter.

Note: A Grass-Green Pillow is the fifth movement of the Color Madrigals. It can be purchased and performed separately.

The Text

By John Keats (England, 1795-1821)
Adapted by the composer

A Grass-Green Pillow 
Where be ye going, you Devon maid?
      And what have ye there i’ the basket?
Ye tight little fairy, just fresh from the dairy,
      Will ye give me some cream if I ask it?
 
I love your meads, and I love your flowers,
      And I love your junkets mainly,
But ’hind the door I love kissing more,
      O look not so disdainly.
 
I love your hills, and I love your dales,
     And I love your flocks a-bleating—
But O, on the heather to lie together,
      With both our hearts a-beating!
 
I’ll put your basket all safe in a nook,
      And your shawl I hang up on this willow,
And we will sigh in the daisy’s eye
      And kiss on a grass-green pillow.

Performed by The Singers - Minnesota Choral Artists (Dr. Matthew Culloton, conductor)