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In the Bleak Midwinter/Footprints in the Snow
Gustav
Holst/Claude
Debussy/arr. Paul
Carey
Price: $1.75 ea (License
to create copies,
purchase through PayPal)
SSAA plus soloist/piano
Text
by Christina
Rossetti
Duration: four
minutes
Difficulty rating (1-5): 3 Premiered December 3, 2000 by Vox Caelestis Women’s Chorus, Oak Park IL, directed by Paul Carey This is a piece which combines Holst’s familiar setting of Rossetti’s text (in F major) with Debussy’s piano prelude Footprints in the Snow (in d minor, with nips and tucks). The piece is pretty barren, cold, and sad until the end, when it shimmers with light as the speaker in the poem realizes he has something to give to the Christ Child -- his heart. If you like unusual ideas and the unexpected, this piece is for you. (If you are a Debussy purist, maybe not!) Complete perusal score available upon request.
TEXT
The full moon was shining
upon the broad sea;
I sang to the one star that
look'd down at me;
I sang to the white horse
that graz'd on the quay,--
As I walk'd down by the
high sea-wall.
But
my lips they,
My lips they,
Said never a word,
As I moped by the high
sea-wall.
The curlew's slow night
song came on the water.
That tremble of sweet notes
set my heart astir,
As I walk'd beside her, the
O'Connell's daughter,
I knew that I did love her.
But my lips
they,
My lips they,
Said never a word,
As we walk'd by the high
sea-wall.
The full moon has fallen, the night wind is
down
And I lie here thinking in bleak Bofin town.
I lie here and thinking, "I am not alone."
For here close beside me is O'Connell's
daughter,
And my lips they, my lips they,
Say many a many a word,
As we
embrace by the high sea-wall.
O! my lips they, my lips they,
say many a word,
As we kiss by the high sea-wall.
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click for audioVox Caelestis Women’s Chorus, directed by Paul Carey; Recorded live December 3, 2000 RETURN TO:
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| PAUL CAREY
composer / conductor All materials and information on this site © 2008 Paul Carey and respective music publishers No part of this site or its contents may be reproduced without written consent. 
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