Bonnie Sweet Robin

This is a setting by Henry Kimball Hadley of a poignant text from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The SATB choir is called upon to sing of the grief of Ophelia after the death of her beloved, Hamlet, disguised as a madman. The English text expresses profound sorrow and the finality of loss. "For bonnie sweet Robin is all my joy. And will a’ not come again? No, no, he is dead," the singer laments, conveying the raw pain of remembrance and the futility of mourning. This is a secular part-song, suitable for a choir seeking to explore dramatic and emotional texts from the theatrical canon.