This edition was prepared by David Anderson — free to download, print, rehearse and perform.
Boreas
Staff Notation • Secular, Partsongs
Preview
0
0
Subscribed as
Want Sunday picks sent to another address too?
Free weekly email
Your choir should not be left out in what's trending
Sunday mass selections, psalms, and trending songs in your area — straight to your inbox.
Boreas by Geoffrey Molyneux Palmer — Lyrics
A glorious wind is blustering,
O come to the hills away!
Where with groaning swing
All the mad firs fling
Abroad their arms to the skurrying sky;
They would follow but they cannot,
Chain’d to the earth for aye!
But we are free to follow
Where that mad wind doth call;
It sings of the seas
Read full lyrics
About Boreas
This vigorous SATB setting of an English text captures the exhilarating power of the north wind, Boreas. The words paint a dramatic scene of a blustering gale, with trees straining and a boat fleeing a squall. The music surely mirrors this wild energy, contrasting the rooted trees with the freedom of the wind. The narrator longs to be carried away by this 'mad wind, sad wind' on its 'cooling wings' to a place of calm, a distant bourne with 'unruffled waters 'neath a perfect sky'. Palmer’s part-song offers a thrilling opportunity for choirs to explore dynamic contrasts and dramatic expression, bringing to life this elemental force of nature and the human desire for escape.
