This edition was prepared by John Henry Fowler — free to download, print, rehearse and perform.
Bright Star
Staff Notation • Secular, Art songs
Preview
0
0
Subscribed as
Want Sunday picks sent to another address too?
Free weekly email
Your choir should not be left out in what's trending
Sunday mass selections, psalms, and trending songs in your area — straight to your inbox.
Bright Star by Charles Hubert Hastings Parry — Lyrics
Bright star! would I were steadfast as thou art —
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night,
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like Nature’s patient sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors —
Read full lyrics
About Bright Star
Charles Hubert Hastings Parry’s Bright Star sets words by John Keats, the Romantic poet. The text explores a longing for eternal constancy, not in the lonely isolation of the stars, but in the intimate embrace of a lover. Parry’s solo tenor setting captures the intense emotion of Keats's sonnet, moving from a contemplation of the celestial to a passionate desire for earthly union. The art song, written in English, offers a dramatic and lyrical interpretation of the poem’s famous lines, exploring themes of love, desire, and mortality. This is a deeply personal and heartfelt expression, suitable for a tenor soloist.
