| Five Childhood Lyrics | |
|---|---|
| Choral music byJohn Rutter | |
 "The Owl and the Pussycat", 1888 illustration byEdward Lear, whose text is set in the second song | |
| Text | Nursery rhymes |
| Performed | 1973 (1973): London |
| Published | 1974 (1974): Oxford OUP |
| Movements | five |
| Scoring | SATB choir |
Five Childhood Lyrics is a choral composition byJohn Rutter, who set five texts, poems andnursery rhymes, for mixed voices (SATB with somedivisi)a cappella.[1] Rutter composed the work for the London Concord Singers who first performed them in 1973.[2]
The five movements are:[2]
The first song is based on "Monday's Child", a fortune-telling song andnursery rhyme. The text of the second song is "The Owl and the Pussycat", a nonsense-poem by Edward Lear published in 1871. The third song is based on a poem, "Windy Nights", byRobert Louis Stevenson. The text for the fourth song is "Matthew, Mark, Luke and John", a nursery rhyme and evening prayer. The fifth song uses the nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence". The composer noted: "The Five Childhood lyrics are a kind of 'homage' to the world of children. I chose for my texts some of the rhymes and verses remembered from my earliest years, and set them to music as simply as I could—though the last of the five, which uses a familiar nursery tune, contains a certain amount of tongue-in-cheek elaboration."[3] The pieces were described by a reviewer forGramophone as "delightful compositions",[4] while another reviewer noted "the energy and sharp-witted invention that characterize these youthful pieces".[5] The work was first published in 1974 byOxford University Press.[6][7]
The songs were recorded in a collection of Rutter's secular works titledFancies, performed under his direction by theCambridge Singers, together with the summer songs of the same name, the winter songsWhen Icicles Hang,[8] and the instrumentalSuite Antique.[1] They were recorded in 2002 on an album of secular music by Rutter, withNicol Matt conducting the Nordic Chamber Choir.[4]
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