From fairest creatures we desire...

From fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauty's rose might never die,
But as the riper should by time decease,
His tender heir might bear his memory:
But thou contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thy self thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel:
Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament,
And only herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own bud buriest thy content,
And, tender churl, mak'st waste in niggarding:
Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.

by William Shakespeare (1564-1616) , from Sonnets, no. 1

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

by Michael G. Cunningham (1937-) , "From fairest creature", op. 87 (1979), published c1980 [high voice, piano], from Shakespeare Songs
by Dennis M. Farrell , "Sonnet I", 1965, first performed 1966 [tenor or soprano and piano], from To a Soldier Dying Young
by A. Oscar Haügland , "Sonnet No. 1", 1981, first performed 1982 [tenor or soprano and viola], from Three Shakespeare Songs, no. ?
by Mamie Grace Leonard , "From fairest creatures", 1957.
by Stig Gustav Schönberg , no title, op. 44 (1966), first performed 1968 [baritone and piano], from Shakespeare Songs
by Richard Simpson (-1876) , "Sonnet I", 1864. [high voice and piano]
by David Winkler , "Sonnet I", 1982 [SATB quartet and piano], from Cycle for Several Voices and Piano, no. 1.

by Serge Baudo (1927-) , "Sonnet I", 1984, first performed 1984.

by Paul Coenen , "Von schönstem Wesen wünschen wir Vermehrung", op. 154 no. ? (1976) [soprano or tenor, flute obbligato, and piano], from Fünf Shakespeare-Sonette erklingen, no. ?

by Carl Joachim Ludwig , no title, 1982 [baritone or mezzosoprano, flute, oboe, clarinet, string orchestra or string quartet, piano], from Fünf Shakespeare Songs, no. ?

by Tugomir Vidanović , no title, 1973, rev. 1974 [high unison voices, flute, two guitars (extra instruments in revised version)], from Uzmi sve moje ljubavi, no. ?

by Franz Alfons Wolpert (1917-1978) , "Sonett I", 1949, published 1978, first performed 1969, from Fünfzehn Shakespeare-Sonette, no. ?

FRE French (François Pierre Guillaume Guizot)
ITA Italian (Ferdinando Albeggiani)

Date added to the website: 2007-10-07.

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