"My heart is like a singing bird" [Michael Berkeley]

"My heart is like a singing bird" [Michael Berkeley]

First line of lyrics: My heart is like a singing bird

Part of: "Songs of Awakening Love"

Berkeley, Michael; music (English, born 1948)

Rossetti, Christina Georgina; text (English, 1830-1894)

1988 [publication]

New York: Oxford University Press; London: Zwemmer/Oxford University Press Music and Books

genre: song|song cycle

solo: soprano

instrumentation: orchestra

initial sharps/flats: no sharps or flats

initial time signature: 6/8

origin: United Kingdom

male composer

English

Rossetti poem(s): "A Birthday"

Place in the larger work: The second song in a song cycle called "Songs of Awakening Love," which includes 1. "I thought once how Theocritus had sung" (Elizabeth Barrett Browning); 2. "My heart is like a singing bird" (Christina Rossetti); 3. "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

Composition history: "The work was commissioned by the City of London Sinfonia with funds from the Arts Council of Great Britain." "Songs of Awakened Love" was written for Heather Harper" (Berkeley 4)

Tempo markings: dotted quarter note = 76

Performance instructions: The orchestra is comprised of flute (doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (2nd doubling Cor anglais), 2 bassoons, 2 horns, strings.

Performance history: "First performed on 15 July 1986 at the Cheltenham International Festival of Music by Heather Harper and the City of London Sinfonia, conducted by Richard Hickox."

Notes: The themes explored in "Songs of Awakening Love" are continued in Berkeley's song cycle "Speaking Silence." While "Songs of Awakening Love" explores first love, "Speaking Silence" comes at the end of the cycle of love. "Speaking Silence" includes a setting of Christina Rossetti's "Echo" (Berkeley 4).

Format 1: musical score

23 pages (pp. 37-59); complete song cycle performance time 27 minutes

Other data reference(s): Berkeley, Michael. Speaking Silence, Oxford University Press, 1986.

Cataloguer: Sarah Pennington, University of Ottawa

musical score: Carleton University Library, Ottawa

Record: CRM-birthday-berkeley

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