The Huntes upp is a sixteenth century ballad attributed to William Gray.

Background

''The hunt is up'' was commonly associated to any song that would be sung in the morning. Shakespeare employs it as such in ''

Romeo and Juliet ''Romeo and Juliet'' is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and, along with ''Ham ...

'' (act iii, sc. 5).

Description

There is a keyboard version in

C major C major (or the key of C) is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. C major is one of the most common keys used in music. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative minor is A minor a ...

William Byrd William Byrd (; 4 July 1623) was an English composer of late Renaissance music. Considered among the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he had a profound influence on composers both from his native England and those on the continent. He i ...

. The work is included in two of the most important collections of

keyboard music A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument played using a keyboard, a row of levers which are pressed by the fingers. The most common of these are the piano, organ, and various electronic keyboards, including synthesizers and digital piano ...

of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass id ...

, ''

My Ladye Nevells Booke ''My Ladye Nevells Booke'' (British Library MS Mus. 1591) is a music manuscript containing keyboard pieces by the English composer William Byrd, and, together with the '' Fitzwilliam Virginal Book'', one of the most important collections of Renai ...

'' and the ''

Fitzwilliam Virginal Book The ''Fitzwilliam Virginal Book'' is a primary source of keyboard music from the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean periods in England, i.e., the late Renaissance and very early Baroque. It takes its name from Viscount Fitzwilliam who beque ...

''. The copying of ''My Ladye Nevells Booke'', which contains a selection of Byrd's keyboard pieces, was completed in 1591. ''The Huntes upp'' is believed, on stylistic grounds, to be one of the earlier pieces in the collection The piece has 11

variation Variation or Variations may refer to: Science and mathematics * Variation (astronomy), any perturbation of the mean motion or orbit of a planet or satellite, particularly of the moon * Genetic variation, the difference in DNA among individual ...

s on the songs ''The Hunt is Up'' and The Nine Muses. It is usually played on a

harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...

and takes around 7 minutes.

Lyrics

The lyrics are:

The hunt is up, the hunt is up, And it is a well nigh daye; And Harry our King is gone hunting, To bring his deere to baye. The east is bright with morning light, And darkness it is fled, And the merie horn wakes up the morne To leave his idle bed. Beholde the skyes with golden dyes Are glowing all around, The grasse is greene, and so are the treene All laughing at the sound. The horses snort to be at the sport, The dogges are running free, The wooddes rejoyce at the mery noise Of hey tantara tee ree! The sunne is glad to see us clad, All in our lustie greene, And smiles in the skye as he riseth hye, To see and to be seen. Awake, all men, I say agen, Be mery as you maye, For Harry our King is gone hunting, to bring his deere to baye.

References

Compositions by William Byrd Pieces in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book {{classical-music-stub