Choral Choir (Mixed) - Level 3 - Digital Download
SKU: A0.942423
Composed by Hubert Parry (1848-1918). Arranged by Brock Lupton (1948-). Christian,Contemporary,Romantic Period,Sacred. Octavo. 6 pages. Brock Lupton #4764195. Published by Brock Lupton (A0.942423).
This setting is ideal for Remembrance Day: it is also suitable for a funeral or celebration of life. It is singable as a congregation hymn, as an anthem for unison voices, or as a vocal solo (range A below middle C to D a ninth above middle C).
The text is by Canadian poet Frederick George Scott (1861-1944). The original title is Requiescant (Let them rest). The source is Christian Poetry in Canada (ed David A. Kent ed, Anglican Book Center and ECW Press, Toronto, Canada, 1993) page 54.
Scott was a military chaplain during World War I. This poem was, in the poet’s own words, [b]egun while I was lying awake in a sleeping-bag under a tarpaulin at Brielen, near Ypres…. during the gas attack on April 22nd, 1915…. As I lay awake, I wondered what all our comrades who had passed over were doing now…. I finished the poem at a little village called Robec. As I wrote it, I could see through the window, my host, who was a carpenter, making a baby’s coffin.
(http://www.canadianpoetry.ca/confederation/FGScott/collected_poems/notes.htm)
I have made a few slight changes: awful has become awe-filled Dear Christ became O Christ, and the line A weary road these men have trod has been altered to A weary road these warriors trod.
Both the music and the original text are in the public domain in Canada, where copyright expires 50 years after the death of the author or composer.
A brass quintet arrangement compatible with the voice part is available separately.
