"The Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" by Benjamin Britten • Washington Men's Camerata

A dramatic and descriptive piece written during the WWII years by Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) "For Richard Wood and the musicians of Oflag VIIb - Germany" concentration camp at Eichstätt, Bavaria in 1943. Julie Huang Tucker, piano. Scott Tucker, conductor. Washington Men's Camerata in "The Dawn of Peace" concert in 2024.
As it fell on one holyday,
As many be in the year,
When young men and maids
Together did go
Their matins and mass to hear,
Little Musgrave came to the church door
The priest was at private mass.
But he had more mind of the fair women
Than he had of Our Lady’s grace.
”So have I lov’d you, my fair ladye,
Yet never a word durst I say.”
”But I have a bower at Bucklesfordberry,
Full daintily it is dight,
If thou’lt wend thither,
Thou Little Musgrave,
Thou’s lig in my arms all night.”
“Yet never a word!”
The one of them was clad in green
Another was clad in pall,
And then came in my Lord Barnard’s wife,
The fairest amongst them all,
Quoth she, “I’ve loved thee, Little Musgrave,
full long and many a day.”
With that beheard a little tiny page,
By his lady’s coach as he ran.
Says, “Although I am my lady’s foot-page,
Yet I am Lord Barnard’s man!”
Then he’s cast off his hose
And cast off his shoon,
Set down his feet and ran,
And where the bridges were broken down
He bent his bow and swam.
“Awake! awake! thou Lord Barnard,
As thou art a man of life!
Little Musgrave is at Bucklesfordberry
Along with thine own wedded wife.”
He called up his merry men all:
”Come saddle me my steed;
This night must I to Bucklesfordberry,
For I never had greater need.”
But some they whistled,
and some they sang,
And some they thus could say,
Whenever Lord Barnard’s horn it blew:
“Away, Musgrave away!”
“Methinks I hear the threstlecock,
Methinks I hear the jay;
Methinks I hear Lord Barnard’s horn,
Away Musgrave! Away!”
“Lie still, lie still, thou little Musgrave,
And huggle me from the cold;
‘Tis nothing but a shepherd’s boy
A-driving his sheep to the fold.
“By this, Lord Barnard came to his door
And lighted a stone upon;
And he’s pull’d out three silver keys,
And open’d the doors each one.
He lifted up the coverlet,
He lifted up the sheet:
“Arise, arise, thou Little Musgrave,
And put thy clothes on;
It shall ne’er be said in my country
I’ve killed a naked man.
I have two swords in one scabbard,
They are both sharp and clear;
Take you the best, and I the worst,
We’ll end the matter here.“
The first stroke Little Musgrave struck,
He hurt Lord Barnard sore;
The next stroke that Lord Barnard struck,
he struck.
Little Musgrave ne’er struck more.
“Woe worth you, my merry men all,
You were ne’er born for my good!
Why did you not offer to stay my hand,
When you saw me wax so wood?
For I’ve slain also the fairest ladye
That ever wore woman’s weed,
A grave,” Lord Barnard cried,
“To put these lovers in!
But lay my lady on the upper hand,
For she comes of the nobler kin.”
Washington Men's Camerata, directed by Scott Tucker, is DC's premier chorus performing, promoting, and preserving diverse tenor and bass choral music and camaraderie since 1984. The Camerata has performed at The Kennedy Center, The White House, Smithsonian institutions, National Gallery of Art, Wolf Trap, Strathmore, and across the region; alongside National Symphony Orchestra, The U.S. Army Chorus, Washington Symphonic Brass, Mark Morris Dance Group, Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia, and on NPR, PBS, and SiriusXM. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the Camerata has recorded six albums and regularly commissions and premieres pieces, part of a national lending library of sheet music, The Demetrius Project, with over 200,000 scores of 3,300 works. www.camerata.com/