a setting of Oscar Wilde [5’]
written for Padraic Rowan and Christopher Schmitz

details

commissioned by the National Concert Hall, Dublin as part of the Jerome Hynes Composers’ Award 2016 for singer Padraic Rowan — first performed by Padraic Rowan and Christopher Schmitz at the National Concert Hall Dublin’s Kevin Barry Room, as part of the Bernadette Greevy Bursary Recital, on Friday October 20, 2017

audio | score

Tristitiae (2017)

text

O well for him who lives at ease
With garnered gold in wide domain,
Nor heeds the splashing of the rain,
The crashing down of forest trees. 

O well for him who ne'er hath known
The travail of the hungry years,
A father grey with grief and tears,
A mother weeping all alone.

But well for him whose foot hath trod
The weary road of toil and strife,
Yet from the sorrows of his life.
Builds ladders to be nearer God.