This edition was prepared by David Anderson — free to download, print, rehearse and perform.
Hymn to the night
Staff Notation • Secular, Partsongs
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Hymn to the night by Henry Ernest Nichol — Lyrics
I heard the trailing garments of the Night
Sweep through her marble halls!
I saw her sable skirts all fringed with light
From the celestial walls!
I heard the sounds of sorrow and delight,
The manifold, soft chimes,
That fill the haunted chambers of the Night,
Like some old poet’s rhymes.
I felt her presence, by its spell of might,
Stoop o’er me from above;
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About Hymn to the night
Henry Ernest Nichol’s Hymn to the Night is a four-part setting for SATB choir of an evocative English text. The composer opens with a sense of hushed reverence, depicting the 'trailing garments of the Night' with flowing vocal lines. The music captures the contrasting emotions described in the poem – the 'sounds of sorrow and delight' – through shifts in harmony and texture. Nichol explores the profound sense of peace and repose that the night can bring, culminating in a powerful declaration of the night's 'calm, majestic presence'. This is a richly drawn secular partsong, ideal for choirs seeking to explore atmospheric and emotionally resonant repertoire.
