Here is an excerpt from my September 13, 2015 faculty recital. This is the song with which I ended the first half: Roger Quilter’s “Fair House of Joy,” which is one of his Seven Elizabethan Songs. The anonymous text says that Love is one of life’s most precious treasures and in no way is ‘bittersweet.” Quilter’s music perfectly matches the exuberance of the text. I’ve given this song any number of times over the last ten years, but this is the very first time that I got to sing it myself.
Fain would I change that note to which fond love hath charmed me. Long long to sing by rote, fancying that hath harmed me. Yet when this love doth come, Love is the perfect sum of all delight! I have no other choice, either by pen or voice to sing or write!
O love, they charm thee much that say thy sweet is bitter- since thy rich fruit is such that nothing can be sweeter. Fair house of joy and bliss, where truest pleasure is- I do adore thee! I know thee what thou art. I serve thee with my heart and fall before thee!