SATB a cappella
Duration: 4 min
Text: Marjorie Pickthall
Boosey & Hawkes
Winning entry in the 2014 DaCapo Chamber Choir NewWorks competition.
The music ebbs and flows with blossoming phrases and
captivating imagery of the text by Canadian poet, Marjorie Pickthall. The constant repetition of
the E further depicts life’s flow, while the final phrases articulate a sweeping motion as if to
portray a starry night and the repetition of the roads illustrating life’s long journey toward the
road’s final ending.
Give me a few more hours to pass
With the mellow flower of the elm-bough falling,
And then no more than the lonely grass
And the birds calling.
Give me a few more days to keep
With a little love and a little sorrow,
And then the dawn in the skies of sleep
And a clear to-morrow.
Give me a few more years to fill
With a little work and a little lending,
And then the night on a starry hill
And the road’s ending.
Themes: Night, Stars, Hill, Journey, Path, Road, Sky, Death, Longing, Love, Nature
Dr. Matthew Emery 