John Rutter Birthday Madrigals

Birthday madrigals (for SATB voices) was written to celebrate the seventy-fifth birthday of jazz pianist George Shearing.The five movements—‘It was a lover and his lass’,‘Draw on, sweet night’,‘Come live with me’,‘My true love hath my heart’, and ‘When daisies pied’—capture the varied moods of the words, bringing these classic texts alive for a contemporary audience.The madrigals can be performed individually or as a five-movement suite, and the accompaniment is for piano and/or double bass. John Rutter was born in London in 1945 and studied music at Clare College, Cambridge. His compositions embrace choral, orchestral, and instrumental music, and he has edited or co-edited various choral anthologies including four Carols for Choirs volumes with Sir David Willcocks and the Oxford Choral Classics series. From 1975 to 1979 he was Director of Music at Clare College, and in 1981 he formed his own choir, the Cambridge Singers. He now divides his time between composition and conducting and is sought after as a guest conductor for the world’s leading choirs and orchestras. John Rutter’s music has been widely recorded and is available on many record labels including Universal, Naxos, and Hyperion.The Cambridge Singers have recorded many of his works on the Collegium Records label. John Rutter was awarded a CBE in the 2007 New Year’s Honours List, in recognition of his outstanding services to music. ‘The most successful and well-known composer of choral music in recent British history’ BBC Music Magazine Other choral works by John Rutter available from Oxford University Press: Dancing Day The Falcon Fancies Five Childhood Lyrics Five Traditional Songs Gloria Magnificat Mass of the Children Psalmfest Requiem The Sprig of Thyme When Icicles Hang Winchester Te Deum For more details about John Rutter and his music, please contact Oxford University Press, Music Department. Cover image: A Wheatfield, with Cypresses by Vincent Van Gogh, 1889. © The National Gallery, London 1 www.oup.com