It's a Rosebud in June - for 2 Harps

Happy Valentine's Day!  Here's an English folk song, which dates from before 1715.  This version was arranged in 1916 by Cecil J. Sharp, and I transcribed and adapted it for 2 harps.  It makes a lush, harpy backdrop for some lovely pictures with roses.  The video runs about 2 minutes.

Pictures in Video -

1 - Rose Island, book illustration from Greenhouse Flora of Europe, circa 1866
2 - Juin, print from calendar by Samuel Grasset, 1896
3 - Growing Buckbee's American Beauty Roses, Victorian trade card, circa 1911
4 - Rose Garden, painting by Charles Vetter, 1926
5 - Roses, painting by P.S. Kroyer, 1893
6 - Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May, painting by John William Waterhouse, 1909
7 - Girl with Rosebush, painting by Hugo Kauffmann, 1904
8 - Early Lovers, painting by Frederick Smallfield, 1858
8 - God Speed! detail of a painting by Edmund Leighton, 1900
10 - The Soul of the Rose, painting by John William Waterhouse, 1908
11 - Rosa Triplex, watercolor by Gabriel Rossetti, 1874

Barbara Allen - for harp

Here's a traditional love song, which has a beautiful melody for harp, even though it is a sad story. The video runs about 3 minutes, and it helps to know the story or read the lyrics so the pictures will make sense:

"Barbara Allen" Lyrics

All in the merry month of May,
When green buds all are swellin'.
Sweet William on his deathbed lay for love of Barbara Allen.
He sent his servant to the town,
The place where she did dwell in.
Saying, 'Master dear has sent me here if your name be Barbara Allen.'
Then slowly, slowly she got up and slowly she went to him,
And all she said when there she came was, 'Young man, I think you're dying.
'Don't you remember the other night when we were in the tavern?
You drank a toast to the ladies there and slighted Barbara Allen.'
He turned his face unto the wall,
He turned his back upon her.
'Adieu, adieu, to all my friends.
And be kind to Barbara Allen.'
As she was wandering on the fields she heard the death bell knellin'.
And every note, it seemed to say,
'Hard-hearted Barbara Allen!'
The more it tolled the more she grieved,
She bursted out a-crying.
'Oh, pick me up and carry me home.
I fear that I am dying.'
They buried Willy in the old church yard and Barbara in the new one,
And from William's grave, there grew a rose, from Barbara's, a green briar.
They grew and grew in the old church yard,
Till they could grow no higher,
And there they tied in a true lover's knot,
The red rose and the briar.

Pictures in Video -
1 - garden catalog illustration, 1899
2 - Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush, book illustration, Ian Maclaren, author, 1899
3 - Woman at the Virginal, detail of a painting by Jan Miense Molenaer, circa 1635
4 - Boy with a Pipe, painting by Jan Miense Molenaer, circa 1630
5 - Happy Company, detail of a painting by Jan Miense Molenaer, 1615
6 - Cruel Barbara Allen, songbook illustration by Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale, circa 1920
7 - Pastoral Scene, painting by Jan Miense Molenaer, 1632
8 - The Young Lady Bellringer, painting by Otto Plitz, 1875
9 - To Edgar Alan Poe, detail of a lithograph by Odilon Redon, 1882
10 - Bonchurch, Old Church Near Ventnor, book illustration by A. Heaton Cooper, circa 1840
11 - funeral holy card illustration, 1896
12 - In the Cemetery of the Deaconesses Abbey, journal illustration, 1871
13 - The Young Lady Bellringer, (filtered effect) painting by Otto Plitz, 1875
14 - Provence or French Rose, engraving by Henry Joseph Redoute, 1917

The Banks of the Sweet Primroses - for Harp

Happy Valentine's Day! Here's a little traditional English tune I arranged for harp. The images with it are vintage Valentines, mostly by one of my favorite illustrators: Kate Greenaway. It's about a minute and a half of music-boxy harpy sweetness. (And just so you know, the lyrics of this folk song give a very real-world-and-less-idyllic depiction of romance.)

Pictures in Video -

1-3 Valentines from "The Quiver of Love," book illustrations by Kate Greenaway, 1876
4 - Valentine post card, circa 1905
5 - Valentine from "The Quiver of Love," book illustration by Kate Greenaway, 1876
6 - Valentine card by Kate Greenaway, circa 1880
7 - Valentine chromolithograph greeting card by Kate Greenaway, 1876
8 - Valentine post card, 1911

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love - for Harp

In honor of Valentine's Day (delayed by the great winter storm of 2021), here's a harp arrangement of John Dowland's circa-1600 tune written for Christopher Marlowe's poem "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love," sometimes known for its first line, "Come Live with Me and Be My Love."  This is a pretty little minute of harp music and pictures of sheep, girls, boys, hills, and valleys.  Enjoy!

Pictures in Video -

1 - Shepherd with a Flute, painting by Savoldo Giovanni Girolamo, Italy, circa 1525
2 - Return of the Herd, painting by Constant Troyon, France, circa 1860
3 - Shepherd and Shepherdess, painting by Abraham Bloemaert, France, 1627
4 - View of the Sele River and the Alburni Mountain Range, painting by Jacob Philipp Hackert, Italy, 1788
5 - painting of shepherd, by Hossein Behzad, Iran, before 1968
6 - The Shepherdess, watercolor by Winslow Homer, US, 1880
7 - The Breton Shepherd, painting by Paul Gauguin, France, 1886
8 - Rest at Pont Aven, painting by Emile Bernard, France, circa 1888
9 - Shepherd Girl Resting, painting by Winslow Homer, US, 1878
10 - Cloud Shadows, painting by Viktor Zarubi, Ukraine, circa 1907

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
- by Christopher Marlowe

Come live with me, and be my love;
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dales and fields,
Woods, or steepy mountain yields.

And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of roses,
And a thousand fragrant posies;
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;

A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair linèd slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;

A belt of straw and ivy-buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs:
And, if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.

The shepherd-swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May-morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me, and be my love.

Veneta Donaldson: "Moment Exquisite"

Veneta's husband, Clyde Donaldson, 1956
photo by Steve Caylor
This is a winter poem that Veneta wrote for the love of her life, Clyde. It's another that I found in her little box of special things.


Moment Exquisite
by Veneta Donaldson

Close the door gently; come, beside me rest,
And pillow your dark head upon my breast,
While twilight shadows steal across the room.
Outside the hands of Winter will resume
Their cherished task of silvering the night,
To fill our hearts with rapturous delight.
Dear One, Time may not bring this hour again;
Let no word's cadence mar the haunting strain
Of music, exquisitely sweet and low,
The melody of night, caroled in snow.


The next poem in this series can be found here: Little Old Lady in Blue.

This is part of a series of poems by Veneta Donaldson. A brief bio and the beginning of the series can be found here: Veneta Donaldson: A Poet in the Family.

Veneta Donaldson: "The Answer"

Veneta's husband, Clyde Donaldson, 1940s
Clyde was the great love of Veneta's life, but he appeared after many years of sadness on her part. As a young woman, she fell in love with a beau who for an unknown reason, left her, breaking her heart. Carrying on, she managed her grief while building a career for herself. Then in walked Clyde--one of the sweetest men on the planet. By the time they married, Veneta was 40 years old. Choosing not to have children, she and Clyde had a wonderful, devoted marriage for 30 years until he passed away.

The Answer
by Veneta Donaldson

Last night you said, "Darling, do you love me?"
And I could only nod my cradled head;
The lovely words were not upon my lips –
They were engraved upon my heart instead.

And then again you said, "Do you love me?"
Do I love you, who gave my heart a song,
Who recognized the sorrows of the years
And gently marshaled them where they belong.

Do I love you? If only I could tell
In glowing phrases what you've meant to me
Since first I glimpsed the beauty of this love
You could not then doubt my sincerity.


The next poem in this series can be found here: Old Houses.

This is part of a series of poems by Veneta Donaldson. A brief bio and the beginning of the series can be found here: Veneta Donaldson: A Poet in the Family.