Ye spotted snakes (Richard John Samuel Stevens)
Music files
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- Editor: Christopher Shaw (submitted 2021-10-04). Score information: A4, 9 pages, 396 kB Copyright: CC BY SA
- Edition notes: Includes a keyboard reduction of the a cappella choral score. Please click on the link for preview/playback/PDF download.
- Editor: Andrew Sims (submitted 2017-11-19). Score information: A4, 7 pages, 174 kB Copyright: CPDL
- Edition notes:
General Information
Title: Ye spotted snakes
Composer: Richard John Samuel Stevens
Lyricist: William Shakespeare
Number of voices: 4vv Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Glee
Language: English
Instruments: A cappella
First published: 1783
2nd published: 1791
Description: Stevens wrote of the 1783 version "I had some qualms upon my mind, respecting the propriety of setting the Burthen [chorus] of this Fairy Song to Music; not considering that if the poet wrote it, I need not be ashamed of setting it to music. However these qualms had got such fast hold in my mind; that in my Composition, I did did omit the Burthen." The revised version was composed and published in 1791 and received "with considerable eclat" It is difficult to see where Stevens considered the impropriety might lie.
External websites:
Original text and translations
English text Ye spotted snakes with double tongue, |
German translation Bunte Schlangen, zweigezüngt, |