PROGRAMME NOTES

A Red, Red Rose

Voice and piano (1967) 
Text: Robert Burns (1759-96)

This simple setting in a kind of blues idiom was written for the composer’s sister Meriel Dickinson and they used it regularly in their recitals together, sometimes as an encore.
Recorded by Meriel and Peter Dickinson on 9 December 1985 for Conifer and now on Rags, Blues & Parodies, Albany TROY 369. Published in Songs in Blue (Novello, 2000).

O my love is like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June:

My love is like the melody,
That’s sweetly played in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonny lass,
So deep in love am I;
And I will love thee still, my dear,
Till all the seas gang dry.

Till all the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt with the sun;
And I will love thee still, my dear,
While the sands of life shall run.

And fare thee well, my only love!
And fare the well awhile!
And I will come again, my love,
Though it were ten thousand mile!