published on
http://tomharrold.net/
http://grahamedavies.com/
A Glasgow Elegy was commissioned by the Court of the University of Glasgow in 2018
Premiere Performance
University of Glasgow Chapel Choir
University of Glasgow Choral Society
Kevin Bowyer (organ)
Katy Lavinia Cooper (conductor)
10th November 2018
University of Glasgow Memorial Chapel
A Glasgow Elegy is scored for chamber choir, massed choir and organ, and lasts approximately thirteen minutes. It was commissioned in 2017 by Glasgow University to commemorate the dead of WWI. The specially-written text by the Welsh writer Grahame Davies is divided into five sections, and whilst the piece can be heard in one continuous movement, each of these passages are tackled with a slightly different musical approach. These segments are linked together by an ascending musical motif which is exposed by the organ at the very opening of the work. From this restrained opening, the entire forces are not heard until the midpoint of the work, on the line Lord, let us feel your presence once again.
T.H.
–
A Glasgow Elegy takes materials from the city's history to commemorate the sacrifice of those who died in the Great War.
St Kentigern, known as Mungo, was an apostle of the Kingdom of Strathclyde in the late 6th century, and is the founder and patron saint of the city of Glasgow. In the Life of Saint Mungo, written in about 1185, he is recorded as performing four miracles in Glasgow, remembered by the verse:
Here is the bird that never flew
Here is the tree that never grew
Here is the bell that never rang
Here is the fish that never swam
The miracles were: restoring to life a robin killed by his classmates; restarting a monastery fire with a hazel branch; possessing a bell brought from Rome and used to mourn the dead, and recovering a lost ring – proof of a queen’s fidelity – from the mouth of a fish in the Clyde.
‘The Way, The Truth, The Life,’ is the motto of Glasgow University.
G.D.
A Glasgow Elegy
Grahame Davies (2018)
THE DEPARTED
The psalms unsung,
the prayers unsaid:
you left them when you went to join the dead.
The doors unopened,
the books unread –
you left them when you went to join the dead.
Let no more hearts be broken,
let no more blood be shed.
let no more hate be spoken,
let no more loved ones leave
to join the dead.
*
THE EXILES
Your fate is not forgotten,
no matter where you fell.
where anyone from Glasgow goes
a city goes as well.
*
THE PRAYER OF ST KENTIGERN
Lord, let us feel your presence once again.
A summer morning between sea and sky.
The white sand through the fingers, grain by grain.
The good place given and the path made plain.
The sunlight's blessing if you stray or stand.
Lord, let us feel your presence once again.
The sun that makes quicksilver of the rain
And diamonds of the machair's drifted sand.
The white sand through the fingers, grain by grain.
Only the shadows from that sun remain.
The memory of breakers on the strand.
Lord, let us feel your presence once again.
Earth and eternity the one domain.
The whole of heaven held within the hand.
The white sand through the fingers, grain by grain.
To give all that we have and count it gain,
And watch the silent sky and understand.
Lord, let us feel your presence once again
The white sand through the fingers, grain by grain.
*
THE FOUR GLASGOW MIRACLES
And let there be for all who fell,
the peace of the sabbath bell.
And for the ones we cannot see
the green fire of the hazel tree.
And for the lost who still belong,
the spell of the robin’s song.
And may the souls of all who died
go homeward like the salmon to the Clyde.
*
THE WAY, THE TRUTH, THE LIFE
You left the path that leads away from pain
and took the way you cannot take again.
You trusted that the search for truth was sweet,
but bitter fruit you did not fear to eat.
You loved, and so you left the light of day
and found a greater light a darker way.