Under the Greenwood Tree

song for voice (or unison voices) and piano

from the film As You Like It

General Information – Performing Forces – Manuscript – Publication – Arrangements – Recordings – Text

General Information:

Composition:
1936, for the score to the film As You Like It.

Duration:
About 2 minutes

Text:
William Shakespeare (1564–1616), from As You Like It, Act II Scene 5.
Click here for complete text.

Craggs Catalogue Number:
C31c

Performing Forces:

Solo voice

Piano

Manuscript:

Frederick R. Koch Collection. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Manuscript FRKF 636. Autograph manuscript score. 2 pages.

Publication:

Oxford University Press. Vocal score, 1937, 019 3458659. Included in William Walton: A Song Album, 1991, 019 3437597. Also published for unison voices and piano, Vocal score, 1937, 019 3450058, Oxford Choral Songs # U105.
            [Purchase online from SheetMusicPlus.com: A Song Album]

Arrangements:

Under the Greenwood Tree is included in Christopher Palmer's As You Like It: A Poem for Orchestra.

Arranged for soprano and orchestra, by Roy Douglas, 1936.
Instrumentation: 2 flutes, oboe, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons – 2 horns – harp – strings.
Publication: Oxford University Press. Score and parts are available on hire.

Recordings:

Text:

Under the greenwood tree
Who loves to lie with me,
And turn his merry note
Unto the sweet bird's throat,
        Come hither, [come] hither, come hither:
        Here shall he see No enemy
        But winter and rough weather.

Who doth ambition shun
And loves to live i' the sun,
Seeking the food he eats
And pleas'd with what he gets,
        Come hither, [come] hither, come hither:
        Here shall he see No enemy
        But winter and rough weather.

— William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

The words in brackets are in Shakespeare's original, but not set by Walton.

WilliamWalton.net – Catalogue of Works – Solo Vocal Music