A New Year's Gift for Bec

I'm greeting 2026 with a song set to a poem that Jonathan Swift wrote for his friend Rebecca Dingley to greet 1724.



You can find the music here and on this page of the IMSLP.

Stella is Esther Johnson, a companion of Rebecca Dingley. Stella could have secretly been married to Swift. Quilca was the name of a house in County Caven, Ireland that was owned by Thomas Sheridan. Swift wrote wrote some of Gulliver’s Travels there.

I have been on a Handel "bender" for the last few weeks, which, no doubt, provided a lot of influence.

All the best for 2026.