SATB a cappella

2 min duration

Text Marion Moodie

email for score , currently unpublished

A Prairie Flower Song by Marion Moodie (1 867-1 958) pub. 1 934

Come away, come away, where the winds are blowing

All among the grassy hills ‘neath the sky so blue,

Come away, come away, prairie flowers are growing,

May-time blossoms sweet and fair waiting there for you.

Come away, come away, summer days are flying,

Follow on her flowery trail by the sunflower’s gleam,

Come away, come away, gentians blue are vying

With the purple aster stars where the foot-hills dream

The writing process of this work was informed by my month long study with the late Alice Parker at her

writing retreat in Hawley MA. There, she taught us how to listen, and to compose away from the page. To

think of a melody, to use call and response, imitation, and other musical gestures that work contrapuntally.

This work was written away from the piano.

The music is virtuosic in its use of mixed meter. The rhythms and melodies are a slight tongue-twister, an

illumination metaphorically of the text which speaks of flowers flying and growing, swirling in the breeze,

further reminding us of the fleetingness of beauty and life itself.

This work is also inspired by Britten’s “Ballad of Green Broom” from Five Flower Songs, and Pärt’s

“Bogoróditse Djévo”

Keep the 8th note pulse consistent throughout the