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Opus 69
The West Wind

This work for voice and piano sets the eponymous poem by John Masefield. We think that CBR started to set the poem to music around 1905: the original manuscript is held in the Cambridge University Library (shelfmark MS.Add.9192.70).

About this work

Op.69 "The West Wind" is an uplifting song and does justice to Masefield's fine poem. Although the music dates originally from ca. 1905, it seems likely that CBR revised the song extensively before it was finally published in 1923.

As far as we can discover, the most recent broadcast performance of "The West Wind" was in a recital of Rootham's songs by Margaret Field-Hyde (soprano) and Clifton Helliwellon (piano) on the BBC Third Programme in 1950.
 

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Publication status

Originally published by J. Curwen & Sons Ltd in 1923, the sheet music for this song has been out of print for several decades. But the work has now been typeset, and we intend to publish our new edition late in 2019.

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About this recording

Disclaimer   This recording is not intended as an artistic rendering, more as a research feature.

Until we have a performance recording, we are providing this generated MP3 so that researchers can follow the score. This synthesized playback was created by the MuseScore notation software.

The West Wind

by John Masefield

It's a warm wind, the west wind, full of birds' cries;
I never hear the west wind but tears are in my eyes.
    For it comes from the west lands, the old brown hills.
    And April's in the west wind, and daffodils.

It's a fine land, the west land, for hearts as tired as mine,
Apple orchards blossom there, and the air's like wine.
    is cool green grass there, where men may lie at rest,
    And the thrushes are in song there, fluting from the nest.

'Will ye not come home brother? Ye have been long away,
It's April, and blossom time, and white is the may;
    And bright is the sun brother, and warm is the rain,-
    Will ye not come home, brother, home to us again?

'The young corn is green, brother, where the rabbits run.
It's blue sky, and white clouds, and warm rain and sun.
    It's song to a man's soul, brother, fire to a man's brain,
    To hear the wild bees and see the merry spring again.

'Larks are singing in the west, brother, above the green wheat,
So will ye not come home, brother, and rest your tired feet?
  I've a balm for bruised hearts, brother, sleep for aching eyes,'
  Says the warm wind, the west wind, full of birds' cries.

It's the white road westwards is the road I must tread
To the green grass, the cool grass, and rest for heart and head,
    To the violets, and the warm hearts, and the thrushes' song,
    In the fine land, the west land, the land where I belong.

This poem was published in 1902 in John Masefield's collection "Salt-Water Ballads", and may have been written earlier.

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About the poet

John Masefield (1878-1967) was an English poet and writer and was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1930.

The life and works of John Masefield are outlined in his biography on Wikipedia.

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