Requiescat (2018)
a setting of Oscar Wilde [4’]
for a choir of mixed voices (ssaattbb), with organ accompaniment (ad libitum)
written for the Choir of the Chapels Royal, HM Tower of London
details
commissioned by the Chapels Royal, HM Tower of London — first performed by the Choir of the Chapels Royal, HM Tower of London, conducted by Colm Carey (Master of Music) at the Church of St. Peter ad Vincula, HM Tower of London on Friday May 25, 2018 — commissioned as part of Songs of Farewell, a concert centering the Songs of Farewell of Charles Parry as part of their WWI centenary celebrations
links
audio | score
Tread lightly, she is near
Under the snow,
Speak gently, she can hear
The daisies grow.
All her bright golden hair
Tarnished with rust,
She that was young and fair
Fallen to dust.
Lily-like, white as snow,
She hardly knew
She was a woman, so
Sweetly she grew.
Coffin-board, heavy stone,
Lie on her breast,
I vex my heart alone,
She is at rest.
Peace, Peace, she cannot hear
Lyre or sonnet,
All my life's buried here,
Heap earth upon it.
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
Oscar Wilde wrote the poem Requiescat (a prayer for the peaceful repose of the soul of a deceased person) in memory of his younger sister Isola, who had died from meningitis when Wilde was 12 years old. Her death had a profound effect on him, and, upon his own death, one of his few remaining material possessions was an envelope containing locks of her hair. Although it doesn’t have a consistent meter, the poem has a very simple ABAB rhyme set here as a hybrid hymn-lullaby.
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