This edition was prepared by Barry Johnston — free to download, print, rehearse and perform.
Hanley Green
Staff Notation • Sacred
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2 editions of this piece
Different typesettings and voicings of the same work. This page shows the main edition; the others are below.
SATB · Barry Johnston
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Hanley Green by Oliver Holden — Lyrics
There is a land of pure delight,
Where saints immortal reign;
Infinite day excludes the night,
And pleasures banish pain;
There everlasting spring abides,
And neverwith'ring flowers:
Death, like a narrow sea, divides
This heavenly land from ours.
Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood
Stand dress'd in living green;
So to the Jews old Canaan stood,
While Jordan roll'd between.
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About Hanley Green
Oliver Holden's Hanley Green opens with a noble, hymn-like tread, the SATB voices moving together in mostly homophonic texture. The music rises to a more expansive and exultant sound as it explores the text, a classic English hymn text by Isaac Watts describing the heavenly Jerusalem. The composer's setting reflects the devotional longing for "a land of pure delight," where "immortal saints" reign in unending day. The piece builds through its various sections, reaching climaxes that convey the joy and peace of the eternal afterlife, contrasting with the "tim'rous mortals" who "shrink to cross this narrow sea" between earthly life and heavenly reward.
