William Byrd: Susanna Fair
The Bryn Mawr Renaissance Choir, under the direction of John Andrew Bailey, performs William Byrd's Susanna Fair, based on the 13th chapter of Daniel in Catholic and Orthodox traditions and in the apocryphal story of Susanna in Protestant ones. Byrd, an Elizabethan-era Catholic well-acquainted with persecution, was content to finish the piece with Susanna's response to the advances of the men as the primary focus of the piece, providing an example to his fellow Catholics of the virtues of martyrdom. However, to the modern ear the piece sounds incomplete; there is no resolution to the situation Susanna finds herself in. Ted Handy, the late director of the Bryn Mawr Renaissance Choir, added a third verse to provide this resolution and complete the story as found in the scriptures. The text is as follows: Susanna fair, sometime assaulted was, by two old men desiring their delight: whose false intent they thought to bring to pass if not by tender love, by force and might: To whom she said, "If I your suit deny you will me falsely accuse, and make me die. And if I grant to that which you request, my chastity shall then deflowered be, which is so dear to me that I detest my life if it berefted be from me; and rather would I die of mine accord ten thousand times than once offend the Lord." (Verse by Ted Handy) The following day they to the court did hie, with cruel hate their vile revenge to take; when Daniel deftly caught them in their lie, he to their lives straightway an end did make; To her escape from death and shame so sore Susanna sang, "Praise God forever more."
The Bryn Mawr Renaissance Choir, under the direction of John Andrew Bailey, performs William Byrd's Susanna Fair, based on the 13th chapter of Daniel in Catholic and Orthodox traditions and in the apocryphal story of Susanna in Protestant ones. Byrd, an Elizabethan-era Catholic well-acquainted with persecution, was content to finish the piece with Susanna's response to the advances of the men as the primary focus of the piece, providing an example to his fellow Catholics of the virtues of martyrdom. However, to the modern ear the piece sounds incomplete; there is no resolution to the situation Susanna finds herself in. Ted Handy, the late director of the Bryn Mawr Renaissance Choir, added a third verse to provide this resolution and complete the story as found in the scriptures. The text is as follows: Susanna fair, sometime assaulted was, by two old men desiring their delight: whose false intent they thought to bring to pass if not by tender love, by force and might: To whom she said, "If I your suit deny you will me falsely accuse, and make me die. And if I grant to that which you request, my chastity shall then deflowered be, which is so dear to me that I detest my life if it berefted be from me; and rather would I die of mine accord ten thousand times than once offend the Lord." (Verse by Ted Handy) The following day they to the court did hie, with cruel hate their vile revenge to take; when Daniel deftly caught them in their lie, he to their lives straightway an end did make; To her escape from death and shame so sore Susanna sang, "Praise God forever more."