This edition was prepared by David Anderson — free to download, print, rehearse and perform.
Come away, death
Staff Notation • Secular, Partsongs
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2 editions of this piece
Different typesettings and voicings of the same work. This page shows the main edition; the others are below.
SSATB · Christopher Downard
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Come away, death by Ralph Vaughan Williams — Lyrics
Come away, come away, death,
And in sad cypress let me be laid.
Fly away, fly away, breath;
I am slain by a fair cruel maid.
My shroud of white, stuck all with yew,
O, prepare it!
My part of death, no one so true
Did share it.
Not a flower, not a flower sweet,
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About Come away, death
Ralph Vaughan Williams sets Shakespeare's lament from Twelfth Night with moving solemnity. The text, a plea for death to offer solace from a cruel love, is rendered by this SSATB setting with a rich, often somber, sonority. The composer crafts delicate textures, with voices weaving around each other to evoke the sorrowful imagery of the cypress tree, the yew-stuck shroud, and the undisturbed grave. The parts move with a natural ebb and flow, capturing the bittersweet resignation of the words. It is a potent and intimate exploration of grief, masterfully scored for a full choir.
