Category: Choral Music
Instrumentation: a cappella voices
Duration: 8 minutes
Text / Source: Anonymous Renaissance poems; The Silver Swan by Christopher Hatton
Publisher: North Star Music

Songs:
There is a Lady Sweet and Kind
The Silver Swan
Love Me Not for Comely Grace

Three Madrigals is a set of a cappella songs based on Renaissance poetry, commissioned by Western Maryland College. The collection includes There is a Lady Sweet and Kind, The Silver Swan, and Love Me Not for Comely Grace, each drawing on the clarity, balance, and text-centered elegance associated with older poetic forms.

Although rooted in Renaissance texts, Baxter’s settings are written in his own tonal language, combining lyrical directness with contemporary harmonic color. The set varies in difficulty, moving from intermediate writing to the more demanding chromaticism and leaps of The Silver Swan, while remaining grounded in clear musical architecture.

Three Madrigals is well suited for chamber choirs, collegiate ensembles, and vocal groups interested in contemporary settings of early English poetry. The set may be performed complete or excerpted individually, offering singers opportunities for refined diction, expressive ensemble balance, and stylistic contrast.