Enchanting Arcadia

Sir Philip Sidney was one of Elizabethan England's greatest poets, producing an enormous body of poetry, voluminous letters, and his seminal treatise, The Defence of Poesie. He also loved music, describing "words set in delightfull proportion, either accompanied with, or prepared for the well enchanting skill of Musicke." Most notably, his pastoral romance, Arcadia, is filled with poems described as songs, with descriptions of characters singing, sometimes to a particular instrument, and to tunes that are variously "joyful," "doleful," "lamentable," or "ravishing."

Aside from a few specific tune titles provided by Sidney, however, most of these "songs" remain without known music. Enchanting Arcadia fills this void, setting almost 100 of the Arcadia's songs to period music. Using his extensive knowledge of early modern English song, Ross W. Duffin has carefully matched musical models to Sidney's poems using works by composers such as William Byrd, John Dowland, Thomas Morley, Thomas Campion, Robert Jones, and William Corkine, all of whom had some connection to Sidney or his family.

Enchanting Arcadia aims to realize at long last the musical enchantment of Sidney's poems, allowing modern readers to experience them not only as poems to be read silently or aloud but also as songs to be sung and enjoyed.