This edition was prepared by James Gibb — free to download, print, rehearse and perform.
Come away, come sweet love
Staff Notation • Secular, Lute songs
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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.
SATB · Brian Russell
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Come away, come sweet love by John Dowland — Lyrics
Come away, come sweet love,
The golden morning breaks.
All the earth, all the air
of love and pleasure speaks:
Teach thine arms then to embrace,
And sweet rosy lips to kiss,
And mix our souls in mutual bliss,
Eyes were made for beauty's grace,
Viewing, rueing love's long pain
Procur'd by beauty's rude disdain.
Come away, come sweet love,
The golden morning wastes,
While the sun from his sphere
his fiery arrows casts,
Making all the shadows fly,
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About Come away, come sweet love
John Dowland's Come away, come sweet love sets a poem of ardent invitation and sensuous longing. The composer's mastery of lute song is evident in this arrangement for SATB choir, where the vocal lines weave together to create a rich and intimate texture. The music captures the urgency of the text's plea to seize the moment, reflecting the 'golden morning' and the 'fiery arrows' of the sun with compelling melodic lines. The piece explores themes of beauty, desire, and the potential pain of rejection, culminating in a desire for 'mutual bliss' and 'heav'nly fire'. Its direct, expressive language and compelling musical setting make it a fitting choice for choirs seeking to explore the refined art of English secular part-song.
