CBR Opus 94

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Opus 94
Hark, where Poseidon's White racing horses

Written in 1936, this unaccompanied part-song sets a poem by the celebrated Canadian poet Bliss Carman.

About this work

Dedication

This work is dedicated to "The President, the Musical Director (Dr Hubert Hunt), and the Members of the Bristol Madrigal Society, for the Society's 100th anniversary".

Cyril Rootham's father Daniel Wilberforce Rootham (1837-1922) was musical director of the Bristol Madrigal Society for 50 years, and it is almost certain that Cyril Rootham belonged to the society during his early years in Bristol.

This recording

This recording of Hark, where Poseidon's White racing horses (Op.94) was made at the summer concert given by the Ripieno Choir on 21 June 2014 at The Menuhin Hall, Stoke d'Abernon. The performance was conducted by David Hansell.

Ripieno Choir

You can read more about the Ripieno Choir and their current concert programme on the choir's website.

Publication status

The sheet music for Rootham's "Hark, where Poseidon's White racing horses" is published by OUP Archive and can be ordered as catalogue no OCS787 through Presto Classical. The piano accompaniment is intended for practice only.

Hark, where Poseidon's White racing horses

by Bliss Carman

Hark, where Poseidon's
White racing horses
Trample with tumult
The shelving seaboard!

Older than Saturn,
Older than Rhea,
That mournful music,
Falling and surging

With the vast rhythm
Ceaseless, eternal,
Keeps the long tally
Of all things mortal.

How many lovers
Hath not its lulling
Cradled to slumber
With the ripe flowers,

Ere for our pleasure
This golden summer
Walked through the corn-lands
In gracious splendour!

How many loved ones
Will it not croon to,
In the long spring-days
Through coming ages,

When all our day-dreams
Have been forgotten,
And none remembers
Even thy beauty!

They too shall slumber
In quiet places,
And mighty sea-sounds
Call them unheeded.

Bliss Carman

Although born and brought up in Canada, Carman enrolled at Harvard University after the death of his parents and spent much of his life in the USA. His literary and publishing ventures were not always successful. Returning impoverished to Canada in 1920, he was welcomed and acclaimed; and in 1921 he was crowned poet laureate of Canada.

Carman's life and works are described in these two links:

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Opus 94 Hark, where Poseidon's White racing horses