canasg choral music publishing - Sea buckthorn
Canasg Choral Music Publishing

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  SG1022 

 
Sea buckthorn


words by Helen Cruickshank (1886-1975)


set to music by Michael Buck

for soprano, alto, tenor and bass chorus


SATB  performance time approx  1m 45s











Composer's note


This piece was inspired by a coastal walk in Galloway, Scotland, where trees grow almost to the water's edge, somehow holding their own against the wind and the salt. The 'wooshing' parts represent the ebb and flow of the waves - working sometimes for and sometimes against the flow of the poem, heedless as the sea.


Two companion Helen Cruickshank settings are Ballad of lost ladye and There was a sang, also published by Canasg.














 Music

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Hear a  MIDI  file of the song 








 Words 


Sea buckthorn






Saut an' cruel winds tae shear it, 

Nichts o' haar an' rain - 	

Ye micht think the sallow buckthorn

Ne'er a hairst could hain; 		

But amang the sea-bleached branches 	

Ashen-grey as pain, 		

Thornset orange berries cluster 

Flamin', beauty-fain.			


Daith an' dule will stab ye surely, 	

Be ye man or wife, 

Mony trauchles an' mischances 

In ilk weird are rife; 

Bide the storm ye canna hinder,

Mindin' through the strife, 

Hoo the luntin' lowe o' beauty 

Lichts the grey o' life.





[salt]

[nights of cold mist]

[might]

[never a harvest could harbour]

[among]



 		
[beauty-loving]



[death and dolour / grief]


 
[many struggles / troubles]

[in everyone's fate]

[cannot]

[remembering]

[how the blazing fire of beauty]

[lights]




Helen Cruickshank 


The sea buckthorn is a shrub which bears orange berries.



Copyright of Helen Cruikshank's poem is held by A C Hunter, Ashgrove House, Loanhead, Midlothian, Scotland EH20 9NG 






 Full glossary and pronunciation guide provided 







Price per copy £1.30 ($2.00)

Note: This price is for the first 20 licensed copies of the song, further copies cost only 25% of this price.












Companion pieces

Browse the Scots and Gaelic section of the Canasg catalogue for more songs like this one.  To go there now, click on the 'catalogue' box to the right.
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Canasg Choral Music Publishing 	


Canasg Music









16 Morningside Park Edinburgh Scotland EH10 5HB  

475 Walhalla Road Columbus Ohio OH 43202 
 










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Page updated by  Peter Hill February 2003