VII. SING, MERRY BIRDS

Sing, merry birds, your cheerful notes,
For Progne you have seen
To come from Summer's queen.
0 tune your throats.
When Progne comes then we are warm,
forgetting all cold Winter's harm.
Now may we perch on branches green,
And singing sit and not be seen.

Source ; Robert Jones; First Set of Madrigals, English Madrigalist Series, Volume 35A. Transcribed, Scored and Edited. London: Stainer & Bell, in 1924.

7. Sing, merry birds, your cheerful notes - Notes, Recordings and Comments

This madrigal survives in Manuscript II 4109, in the Brussels Royal Library. The author of this poem is unknown - as far as I know.
I don't know of any recording of this madrigal nor do I know of any recordings of any of the 26 madrigal in this entire book. The only madrigal by Jones that is on disc is his well recorded Oriana madrigal.

Notes from Edmond Fellowes 'Notes' to Volume XXXV (1924) (Jones' Madrigal book).;
Line 2. progne, or Procne, the Nightingail.
There are no notes about this madrigal in Fellowes' 'English Madrigal Verse'

I come, sweet birds, with swiftest flight,
Who never knew what was delight.
Still am I pressed
To take no rest,
Still must be flying ;
Which I ever
Must endeavour
Till my dying.
It was assigned me by hard lot.
And you see I break it not.

8. I come sweet birds, with swiftest flight, - Notes and Comments

This madrigal survives in Manuscript II 4109, in the Brussels Royal Library. The author of this poem is unknown. There are no notes about this madrigal in Fellowes' 'English Madrigal Verse' or 'Volume XXXV'.

Cock-a-doodle-doo : thus I begin
And loudly crow when none doth sing.
All cocks that are a-bed
Your hens look well you tread,
For why? the morning grey
Calls up the cheerful day.

9. Cock-a-doodle-doo : thus I begin - Notes

This madrigal survives in Manuscript II 4109, in the Brussels Royal Library. The author of this poem is unknown. There are no notes about this madrigal in Fellowes' 'Volume XXXV'.
Notes from Edmond Fellowes 'English Madrigal Verse'
IX. 4] During the repetitions of this line the words are rearranged 'Your ... ? .. well you tread' in some parts.

Shrill-sounding bird, call up the drowsy morn ;
Proclaim black Morpheus thrice to loathsome cell.
That Phoebus' face may the fair Skies adorn
Whose beams unwholesome vapours doth expel ;
That I may mount up to the clearest sky
and bear a part in heavenly harmony.

10. Shrill-sounding bird, call up the drowsy morn (the first part) - Notes and Comments

This madrigal survives in Manuscript II 4109, in the Brussels Royal Library. The author of this poem is unknown. There are no notes about this madrigal in Fellowes 'English Madrigal Verse' or in 'Volume XXXV'.

XI. (The second part).

And when day's fled. with slow pace I'll return
To meet dark Night attired in sable weed,
And dress myself in black with him to mourn,
For from like cause the like effects proceed.
He mourns because the sun doth shun his sight:
I mourn 'cause darkness cuts off my delight.

11. And when day's fled, with slow pace I'll return (the second part) - Notes and Comments

Only fragments of this madrigal survive and so the music is not in Fellowes' 'Volume XXXV'. With two of the four parts surviving perhaps an attempt, at reconstructing it, could be made.
There are no notes about this madrigal in Fellowes 'English Madrigal Verse' or in 'Volume XXXV'.

Here is an end of all the songs
That are in number but four parts:
And he loves music well, we say,
That sings all five before he starts.

12. Here is an end of all the songs, - text by Robert Jones? - Notes and Comments

Only fragments of this madrigal survive and so the music is not in Fellowes' 'Volume XXXV'. With two of the four parts surviving, perhaps an attempt could be made at reconstructing it.

We can not say who the author of this poem or 'doggerel' is for certain, but surely Robert Jones himself could have taken the liberty to scrawl this one rhyme, at least. It is hard to think of anyone else but the composer, to be in the position, to be the author of this. - P. T. C.

Notes from Edmond Fellowes' 'English Madrigal Verse';
XII. This doggerel verse is simply an expansion of the rubric commonly employed by the madrigalists at the conclusion or each group of compositions written for a certain number of vocal parts, e.g. 'Here endeth the songs of three [four, five, six] parts'. There are five compositions for four voices in this volume.
Notes from Edmond Fellowes 'Notes' to Volume XXXV (1924) ;
XII. Doggerel lines made up from the formula " Here endeth the songs of four parts " so commonly employed in the original part-books of the madrigalists.