‘May’ is movement 5 from Twelve Trees – a collection of pieces celebrating trees native to the British Isles by Katy Lavinia Cooper, with words by Catriona Downie.
The hawthorn has many names—May tree, whitethorn, quickthorn, faerie tree—and is seen as a herald of summer. Steeped in folklore, often growing alone, many would never bring it into their homes as it was said to bring illness and death – its scent supposedly very similar to that of the Black Death. It is also the tree most likely to be home to the ‘Wee Folk’ (fairies). Thomas the Rhymer, the 1 3th century Scottish poet, claimed to have met the Faerie Queen beside a hawthorn on the Eildon Hills from which a cuckoo was calling. She led him briefly into the underworld but upon his return he found he had been absent for seven years. The music of this movement quotes a famous Cornish May song and the medieval English round, ‘Sumer is icumen in’.
Twelve trees was commissioned to mark 60 years of Sing for Pleasure and first performed at Summer School 2024. Words by Catriona Downie and music by Katy Lavinia Cooper (O Lux Beata). A collection of twelve pieces celebrating trees native to the British Isles and drawing inspiration from history, folklore and traditional music.
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