This is something between an original and an arrangement — I could hardly say I was going to improve on the Thomas Campion original (though, hey, at least there’s already something of a tradition of re using his words!) And also I was reading the words along with the music as I was coming up with my own tune… So this has some of the original tune along with some new/’updated’, I guess, bits.
Never weather-beaten sail More willing bent to shore Never tired pilgrims limbs Affected slumber more Than my weary sprite now longs To fly out of my troubled breast Oh come quickly Oh come quickly Oh come quickly sweetest Lord And take my soul to rest
Ever blooming are the joys Of heav’ns high paradise Cold age deafs not there our ears Nor vapour dims our eyes Glory there the sun outshines Whose beams the blessed only see Oh come quickly Oh come quickly Oh come quickly glorious Lord And raise my sprite to Thee
in a change from my usual hymn settings 🙂 — here is a new tune for a famous old English lyric:
Over the mountains And over the waves, Under the fountains And under the graves, Under floods that are deepest, Which Neptune obey Over rocks which are the steepest, Love will find out the way.
You may esteem him A child for his might, Or you may deem him A coward from his flight. But if she, whom Love doth honor, Be concealed from the day Set a thousand guards upon her, Love will find out the way.
Some think to lose him By having him confined Some do suppose him, Poor thing, to be blind; But if ne’er so close ye wall him, Do the best that you may, Blind Love, if so ye call him, Will find out his way.
You may train the eagle To stoop to your fist. You may train in veigle The Phoenix of the east. The lioness, you may move her To give o’er her prey; But you’ll ne’er stop a lover; He will find out his way.
I’m thinking the kind of folk/lullaby you get in a movie? very simple.
As I may have mentioned, The Hymns and Carols of Christmas became pretty much my favourite site these last few years, and not just at Christmas… When I’m at a loose end one of my favourite things to do is make Christmas songs. (I try and completely ignore the original tunes of these lyrics, or ideally not know them in the first place.)
‘As on the night before this blessed morn’, words by George Wither, from here.
This is from sometime in November, alongside all the piano pieces. I had also just been to see Frozen 2, which … isn’t necessarily relevant, but it certainly put me in a musical theatre mood! Some more expressive vocal lines. The “whom nooor the earth nor (breath) HEavn of heavns can (breath) HOOOOLD” part is my favourite ^.^
1. As on the night before this blessed morn A troop of Angels unto Shepherds told, Where in a stable he was poorly born, Whom nor the earth nor heaven of heavens can hold, Through Bethlehem rung. This news at their return ; Yea, Angels sung, That God with us was born And they made mirth, because we should not mourn.
2. This favour Christ vouchsafed for our sake : To buy us thrones he in a manger lay ; Our weakness took, that we his strength might take, And was disrob'd, that he might us array : Our flesh he wore, Our sin to wear away : Our curse he bore, That we escape it may ; And wept for us, that we might sing for aye.
Today in perfect Gladness
Another one, also just from the very end of November I think! here
1. Today in perfect gladness Our praises let us sing, The Lord Who heals our sadness, Is born today our King, The Lord Who, like a giant, His course doth run, On His own strength reliant, Our righteous Sun.
2. In darkness He is lying Who gives the sky its light, He in a stall is crying Who thunders in His might; Swathes are those Hands enfolding Which made the stars, Him swaddling bands are holding Who breaketh down hell's bars.
3. He comes, redemption bringing, He comes, the Undefiled The Rose from Lily springing, The Father from His Child. He comes, with kingly banner Not yet unfurl'd, He comes, in wondrous manner, To save the world.
I had some trouble with the word “burils” in the original lyrics… “who burrils hell’s bars”. Even if I was sure what it meant (seems to maybe be a blacksmith/carpentry tool, which is NEAT but…) … it’s not going to translate well to a random listener I fear.
I would like to make something with all these Christmas songs, and the increasing amount of “modern hymn”(?) settings (..a lot of Catherine Winkworth, basically. I’ve got the entire Lyre Germanica to go through now and I am unstoppable.) … A book? for….. some people? I suppose choral settings would be the thing. Or different versions, some of them are fairly solo/unison/pop, right?
So, I never actually posted any pieces past 1, 2 and 3 on this blog — but I did write them! I wrote a short piano piece for every day of November this year too, and here they all are on bandcamp.
Which means it is time for aspiring novelists everywhere to attempt National Novel Writing Month aka NaNoWriMo (and it’s very much international these days) and write around 2000 words a day towards a 50 000 word novel by the end of the month.
And time for me to do Pianowrimo which is… just a pun really, though “piano writing month” is okay I guess.
For the last two years I’ve been doing a parallel project where I compose, notate and record one short (short!!) piano piece for every day of November. The results are here to listen to for 2017 and here for 2018.
I’ve had a slightly delayed started this year but I am catching up as we speak, so watch this space for the first six pieces at least any moment now 🙂
