1914- Choral Edition

James Crawford’s SATB setting of a powerful English text opens with a sense of gathering storm. The voices move with a restless energy, reflecting the turmoil described in the poem, as it contrasts the perceived golden ages of Greece and Rome with the devastating onset of the First World War. The music captures the "perishing great darkness" and the "foul tornado" of conflict, depicting the destruction of progress and the "famines of thought and feeling." The piece concludes with a stark image of "wild winter, and the need / Of sowings for new Spring, and blood for seed," a poignant reflection on loss and the uncertain hope for future renewal. This is a profound and evocative setting of a significant text.