Five times by the taper's light

Stephen Storace, a composer of operas and other stage works, also wrote a number of glees. This example, for SSTB voices, comes from that secular tradition. The text expresses the impatience of children waiting for their father to return from a hunting trip, their anxious thoughts punctuated by the slow ticking of the clock as night wears on. The composer captures their mounting tension with a lively, almost anxious musical setting, the voices tumbling over each other with the words 'Home! Home! he comes not home.' The final 'Bome! Bome!' echoes the distant clock's toll, leaving the listener with a sense of unresolved anticipation.