pdf of full (draft) score at foot of page
Midwinter Cantata by Nick Hart
The Midwinter Cantata Texts
Watch With Me Christina Rossetti
Watch with me, men, women, and children dear,
You whom I love, for whom I hope and fear,
Watch with me this last vigil of the year.
Some hug their business, some their pleasure-scheme;
Some seize the vacant hour to sleep or dream;
Heart locked in heart, some kneel and watch apart.
Watch with me, men, women, and children dear,
You whom I love, for whom I hope and fear,
Watch with me this last vigil of the year.
Winter Heavens George Meredith
Sharp is the night, but stars with frost alive
Leap off the rim of earth across the dome.
It is a night to make the heavens our home
More than the nest whereto apace we strive.
Lengths down our road each fir-tree seems a hive,
In swarms outrushing from the golden comb.
They waken waves of thoughts that burst to foam:
The living throb in me, the dead revive.
Yon mantle clothes us: there, past mortal breath,
Life glistens on the river of the death.
It folds us, flesh and dust; and have we knelt,
Or never knelt, or eyed as kine the springs
Of radiance, the radiance enrings:
And this is the soul’s haven to have felt.
Coronemus Thomas Jordan
Let us drink and be merry, dance, joke, and rejoice,
With claret and sherry, theorbo and voice!
The changeable world to our joy is unjust,
All treasure’s uncertain,
Then down with your dust!
In frolics dispose your pounds, shillings, and pence,
For we shall be nothing a hundred years hence.
Your most beautiful bride who with garlands is crown’d
And kills with each glance as she treads on the ground,
Whose lightness and brightness doth shine in such splendour
That none but the stars
Are thought fit to attend her,
Though now she be pleasant and sweet to the sense,
Like us will be mouldy a hundred years hence. (edited)
Then why should we turmoil in cares and in fears,
Turn all our tranquill’ty to sighs and to tears?
Let’s eat, drink, and play till the worms do corrupt us,
’Tis certain, Post mortem Nulla voluptas. (There is no pleasure)
For health, wealth and beauty, wit, learning and sense,
Must all come to nothing a hundred years hence.
In Tenebris Ford Madox Ford
All within is warm,
Here without it’s very cold,
Now the year is grown so old
And the dead leaves swarm.
In your heart is light,
Here without it’s very dark,
When shall I hear the lark?
When see aright?
Oh, for a moment’s space!
Draw the clinging curtains wide
Whilst I wait and yearn outside
Let the light fall on my face.
Carpe Diem
adapted from Horace, Henley and Longfellow
Be wise! Drink free! Embrace the running tide!
So seize the day! The next may be denied.
Invictus by Henley
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
After Invictus, Hart
Standing, my hand upon the gate,
With pounds enough to pay the toll,
Unknown the way, I hesitate
To leave familiars that console.
Now is the time to show resolve,
To run the course, to leap the stream,
Now is the time, let fears dissolve,
To live and love beyond the dream.
Look back but briefly on yesteryear,
Leave longing alone, and duties undone;
Live in the now, live in the here,
Enjoy the race be it lost or won
Carpe Diem, Adapted from Horace
Don’t strive, dear friend, to know your end,
Nor what events the fates may send;
Don’t try to read the stars at all
Nor try to know what may befall;
Whether we live more winters or our last,
Like limpets to the rock hold fast.
Be wise! Drink free! Embrace the running tide!
So seize the day! The next may be denied.
‘What The Young Man Said To The Psalmist’ Longfellow
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;
Luly Lulay
Spiral Song of The Hurlers Hart
Darkness, night’s dead time,
Lightness, dawning day.
Sunday’s forbidden, it’s sinful to dance,
To dally or gamble or reckon with chance,
Stand like a statue or sit in your pew,
Read the good book and may God bless you.
Sentinel stones turn tomorrow around,
Their shadows in silence lie deaf on the ground,
Spirals of light play their luminous rhyme
In circles that hold the circle of time.
Darkness of night’s dead time, lightness of dawning day,
Measure the harvest of life, witness its death and decay.
Spirals of light play their luminous rhyme
In circles that hold the circle of time.
Darkness, night’s dead time,
Lightness, dawning day.
Watch With Me Christina Rossetti
Watch with me, men, women, and children dear,
You whom I love, for whom I hope and fear,
Watch with me this last vigil of the year.
Some hug their business, some their pleasure-scheme;
Some seize the vacant hour to sleep or dream;
Heart locked in heart, some kneel and watch apart.
Watch with me, men, women, and children dear,
You whom I love, for whom I hope and fear,
Watch with me this last vigil of the year.
Winter Heavens George Meredith
Sharp is the night, but stars with frost alive
Leap off the rim of earth across the dome.
It is a night to make the heavens our home
More than the nest whereto apace we strive.
Lengths down our road each fir-tree seems a hive,
In swarms outrushing from the golden comb.
They waken waves of thoughts that burst to foam:
The living throb in me, the dead revive.
Yon mantle clothes us: there, past mortal breath,
Life glistens on the river of the death.
It folds us, flesh and dust; and have we knelt,
Or never knelt, or eyed as kine the springs
Of radiance, the radiance enrings:
And this is the soul’s haven to have felt.
Coronemus Thomas Jordan
Let us drink and be merry, dance, joke, and rejoice,
With claret and sherry, theorbo and voice!
The changeable world to our joy is unjust,
All treasure’s uncertain,
Then down with your dust!
In frolics dispose your pounds, shillings, and pence,
For we shall be nothing a hundred years hence.
Your most beautiful bride who with garlands is crown’d
And kills with each glance as she treads on the ground,
Whose lightness and brightness doth shine in such splendour
That none but the stars
Are thought fit to attend her,
Though now she be pleasant and sweet to the sense,
Like us will be mouldy a hundred years hence. (edited)
Then why should we turmoil in cares and in fears,
Turn all our tranquill’ty to sighs and to tears?
Let’s eat, drink, and play till the worms do corrupt us,
’Tis certain, Post mortem Nulla voluptas. (There is no pleasure)
For health, wealth and beauty, wit, learning and sense,
Must all come to nothing a hundred years hence.
In Tenebris Ford Madox Ford
All within is warm,
Here without it’s very cold,
Now the year is grown so old
And the dead leaves swarm.
In your heart is light,
Here without it’s very dark,
When shall I hear the lark?
When see aright?
Oh, for a moment’s space!
Draw the clinging curtains wide
Whilst I wait and yearn outside
Let the light fall on my face.
Carpe Diem
adapted from Horace, Henley and Longfellow
Be wise! Drink free! Embrace the running tide!
So seize the day! The next may be denied.
Invictus by Henley
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
After Invictus, Hart
Standing, my hand upon the gate,
With pounds enough to pay the toll,
Unknown the way, I hesitate
To leave familiars that console.
Now is the time to show resolve,
To run the course, to leap the stream,
Now is the time, let fears dissolve,
To live and love beyond the dream.
Look back but briefly on yesteryear,
Leave longing alone, and duties undone;
Live in the now, live in the here,
Enjoy the race be it lost or won
Carpe Diem, Adapted from Horace
Don’t strive, dear friend, to know your end,
Nor what events the fates may send;
Don’t try to read the stars at all
Nor try to know what may befall;
Whether we live more winters or our last,
Like limpets to the rock hold fast.
Be wise! Drink free! Embrace the running tide!
So seize the day! The next may be denied.
‘What The Young Man Said To The Psalmist’ Longfellow
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;
Luly Lulay
Spiral Song of The Hurlers Hart
Darkness, night’s dead time,
Lightness, dawning day.
Sunday’s forbidden, it’s sinful to dance,
To dally or gamble or reckon with chance,
Stand like a statue or sit in your pew,
Read the good book and may God bless you.
Sentinel stones turn tomorrow around,
Their shadows in silence lie deaf on the ground,
Spirals of light play their luminous rhyme
In circles that hold the circle of time.
Darkness of night’s dead time, lightness of dawning day,
Measure the harvest of life, witness its death and decay.
Spirals of light play their luminous rhyme
In circles that hold the circle of time.
Darkness, night’s dead time,
Lightness, dawning day.
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