vocal

a winter rose

Posted by sara-garrard

A SONG’S ECHO

My Love is like a Winter rose
That sweetly blooms alone,
That has of rivals none, and knows
A beauty all her own.

My Love is like a tender tune
That wakens tender words,
And fills December full of June,
And brings again the birds.

Her smile, my sun; her voice, my song;
Her face, my flower of bliss;
Oh, who could find the Winter long
With such a Love as this!

‘A Song’s Echo’ by Frank Dempster Sherman

Love will find out the way

Posted by sara-garrard
Love will find out the way

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.

Abide among us

Posted by sara-garrard

Since I posted a throwback that must mean I have NEW music, yes?

Yes!  Sort of.  I sketched out another four Catherine Winkworth hymns on the piano yesterday, and here is one of them, the most coherent recording~  I might try and cut together the others or re record sometime.  This has a nice pretty tune and some lovely unnecessary doodles!

I’ve branched out!  We’re now doing general purpose hymns not just Christmas 😛  I found the entire Chorale book for England with hundreds of these so I AM UNSTOPPABLE…..  what shall I do with all these??

Abide among us with Thy grace,
Lord Jesus, evermore,
Nor let us e’er to sin give place,
Nor grieve Him we adore.
Abide among us with Thy word,
Redeemer, whom we love,
Thy help and mercy here afford,
And life with Thee above.

Abide among us with Thy ray,
O Light that lightens all,
And let Thy truth preserve our way,
Nor suffer us to fall.
Abide with us to bless us still,
O bounteous Lord of peace;
With grace and power our souls fulfill,
Our faith and love increase.

Abide among us as our shield,
O Captain of Thy host;
That to the world we may not yield,
Nor e’er forsake our post.
Abide with us in faithful love,
Our God and Saviour be,
Thy help at need, oh, let us prove,
And keep us true to Thee.

Christmas ?Carols?

Posted by sara-garrard
As on the night..

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?