Ten Riddles
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1992
6'
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Ten short settings of English folk verses
for High Voice and Piano
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View
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You are welcome to download this music for perusal purposes. All copyright in the score and associated digital media rests with the composer.
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1
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White bird featherless flew from Paradise,
pitched on the castle wall.
Along came Lord Landless
and took it up handless
and rode away horseless
to the king's white hall.
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2
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White sheep on a blue hill,
When the wind stops, you all stand still.
When the wind blows, you run away slow,
White sheep, white sheep, where do you go?
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3
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What is it more eyes doth wear
than forty men within the land,
Which glister as the crystal clear
Against the sun, when they do stand?
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4
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Although it's cold no clothes I wear,
Frost and snow I do not fear,
I have no use for hose or shoes
Although I travel far and near.
All I eat comes free to me,
I need no cider, ale or sack,
I nothing buy or sell or lack.
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5
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In marble halls as white as milk,
Lined with a skin as soft as silk,
Within a fountain crystal clear,
A golden apple doth appear.
No doors there are to this stronghold,
Yet thieves break in and steal the gold.
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6
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I was round and small like a pearl,
Then long and slender, as brave as an earl.
Since like a hermit I lived in a cell
And now like a rogue in the wide world I dwell.
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7
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Stiff standing in the bed,
First it's white, then it's red.
There's not a lady in the land
That would not take it in her hand.
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8
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Itum paradisum all clothed in green,
The king could not read it, no more could the queen.
They sent for the wise men out of the East,
Who said it had horns, but was not a beast.
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9
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I saw five birds all in a cage,
Each bird had but a single wing,
They were an hundred years of age,
And yet did fly and sweetly sing.
The wonder did my mind possess,
When I beheld their age and strength.
Besides as near as I can guess,
Their tails were thirty feet in length.
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10
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I am within as white as snow,
Without as green as herbs that grow.
I am higher than a house,
And yet lesser than a mouse.
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