The Turning Year Part 2
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Words by Hilaire Belloc
Music by Geoff Allan

NEW Link to pdf file (choir version) http://www.box.net/shared/euoti5n484
NEW Link to pdf file (piano version) http://www.box.net/shared/dhon0dh4w0
NEW Link to zip of pdf files (madrigals) http://www.box.net/shared/0vxpxdo088

Link to Noteworthy Composer Files http://www.box.net/shared/nfxpgscso8

The piece could start with "The Night" then go Jan to Dec finishing with "The Night" or
could start with "Midsummer" then traverse Jul to Dec, The Night (first version) then on to June and
terminate with "Midsummer" - conductor's choice

The Night
(Key Fmin, Sop Solo SATB oboe obbligato - finished - 1st sing through ^{10 July 2007})
Most Holy Night, that still dost keep
The keys of all the doors of sleep,
To me when my tired eyelids close
Give thou repose.

And let the far lament of them
That chaunt the dead day's requiem
Make in my ears, who wakeful lie,
Soft lullaby.

Let them that guard the hornàed Moon
By my bedside their memories croon.
So shall I have new dreams and blest
In my brief rest.

Fold thy great wings about my face,
Hide day-dawn from my resting-place,
And cheat me with thy false delight,
Most Holy Night.

Link to Fabulous Electro-Synth Singers performance : http://www.box.net/shared/hrf37omggo

January
(Key Cmin, Contralto solo SATB clarinet obbligtao) ^{Started 26 February 2008}
It freezes- all across a soundless sky
The birds go home. The governing dark's begun:
The steadfast dark that waits not for a sun;
The ultimate dark wherein the race shall die.
Death, with his evil finger to his lip,
Leers in at human windows, turning spy
To learn the country where his rule shall lie
When he assumes perpetual generalship.
The undefeated enemy, the chill
That shall benumb the voiceful earth at last,
Is master of our moment, and has bound
The viewless wind it-self. There is no sound.
It freezes. Every friendly stream is fast.
It freezes; and the graven twigs are still.
Link to Fabulous Electro-Synth Singers performance : http://www.box.net/shared/6k9hnpg08k

(Key Gmin, Tenor Solo SATB clarinet(?) obbligato) ^{Started 23 February 2008}
February
The winter moon has such a quiet car
That all the winter nights are dumb with rest.
She drives the gradual dark with drooping crest,
And dreams go wandering from her drowsy star.
Because the nights are silent, do not wake:
But there shall tremble through the general earth,
And over you, a quickening and a birth.
The sun is near the hill-tops for your sake.
The latest born of all the days shall creep
To kiss the tender eyelids of the year;
And you shall wake, grown young with perfect sleep,
And smile at the new world, and make it dear
With living murmurs more than dreams are deep.
Silence is dead, my Dawn; the morning's here.^{Finished 17 March 2008 23:55}
Link to Fabulous Electro-Synth Singers performance : http://www.box.net/shared/wyomhpaos8

March
(Key Dorian/Hypodorian modes Bar Solo SATB - Piano [Clarinet/Flute or Oboe] obbligato ) ^{Started 15 February 2008}
The north-cast wind has come from Norroway,
Roaring he came above the white waves' tips!
The foam of the loud sea was on his lips,
And all his hair was salt with falling spray.
Over the keen light of northern day
He cast his snow cloud's terrible eclipse;
Beyond our banks he suddenly struck the ships,
And left them labouring on his landward way.
The certain course that to my strength belongs
Drives him with gathering purpose and control
Until across Vendean flats he sees
Ocean, the eldest of his enemies.
Then wheels he for him, glorying in goal
And gives him challenge, bellowing battle songs.^{Finished 23 February 2008}
Link to Fabulous Electro-Synth Singers performance : http://www.box.net/shared/yqdl4f9444

April
(Key Hypodorian mode / A major -fa-la-la glee - flute/oboe or 2 flutes )^{Started 4 March 2008}
The stranger warmth of the young sun obeying,
Look! little beads of green begin to grow,
And hidden flowers have dated their tops to show
Where late such droughty dusts were rudely playing.
It's not the month, but all the world's a-maying!
Come then with me, I'll take you, for I know
Where the first hedgethorns and white windflowers blow:
We two alone, that goes without the saying.
The month has treacherous clouds and moves in fears.
This April shames the month itself with smiles:
In whose new eyes I know no heaven of tears,
But still serene desire and between whiles,
So great a look that even April's grace
Makes only marvel at her only face. ^{Finished 8 March 2008}
Link to Fabulous Electro-Synth Singers performance : http://www.box.net/shared/rzq6tcusoc
The Turning Year Part 2
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