Instrumentation |
Acoustic guitar |
Type of score |
Lead sheet |
Key |
A minor |
Publisher |
Grace Joy Reid |
Language |
English |
Difficulty |
Easy |
Duration |
2'0 |
“Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind”
and
“Under The Greenwood Tree”
Here are the two songs that I wrote the melody & chords for from, “As You Like It,” a pastoral comedy play by William Shakespeare in 1599.
It is meant to be played by a pianist, guitarist or a ukulele player while that person sings.
The first song, "Under the Greenwood Tree," is a melancholy song - not necessarily sad, but not upbeat. The third verse has a different "chorus" with the same tune. It's written by a different lord of the forest making fun of the singer. I also employed the F# to G# in bar 5 to show that the notes are turning on a merry note, with whole tones, meaning a happy sound. The last chord is a Picardy Third, meaning that I raised the 3rd note, which is an E, 1/2 step to make it an A Major chord.
The second song is after the forest lords are joined by the male protagonist and his servant after they were starving in the forest. They are welcomed to the forest lords' table and meager offerings, and a song is sung to accompany their meal. The HTT performers loved singing this chorus, especially, with much gusto!
Both songs were performed by the Homeschool TheatreTroupe (HTT), which is a division of Castaways Repertory Theatre (CRT). Elizabeth Hoffman performed both songs with her ukulele in April - May 2023 in Virginia, United States.