SATB unaccompanied | Duration: 2m30 | Difficulty: Moderate (needing good breath support)
Texts by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)
Two separate texts appearing on his memorial in St. Giles Cathedral. The first part is flowing, irregular, folk-like; the second a solemn but joyful hymn.
2019
Give us grace and strength to forbear and to persevere.
Give us courage and gaiety, and the quiet mind.
Spare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies.
Bless us, if it may be, in all our innocent endeavours.
If it may not, give us the strength to encounter that which is to come,
that we may be brave in peril, constant in tribulation, temperate in wrath,
and in all changes of fortune,
and down to the gates of death,
loyal and loving to one another.Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.
Robert Louis Stevenson, Scotland, prayer, thanksgiving, memorial, funeral, remembrance, folk, anthem.