This edition was prepared by David Anderson — free to download, print, rehearse and perform.
Handel’s Childhood
Staff Notation • Secular, Partsongs
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.
Handel’s Childhood by Alfred James Caldicott — Lyrics
Bare and cold the garret chamber,
Gloomy with its shadows dim,
Hung with dusty drooping cobwebs
And drapery so weird and grim.
Suddenly from out the shadows
Of the cold deserted room
Came a strain of sweetest music
Through the dim and ghostly gloom.
While the night stood still to listen,
Soft and low the music sighed,
And in melting, minor measures
Into solemn silence died.
Say, what skilful, wrapt Musician
In the lonely room apart,
Thus made glad the sombre midnight
With his wondrous art.
Read full lyrics
About Handel’s Childhood
Alfred James Caldicott’s SATB partsong Handel’s Childhood opens with a hushed, atmospheric texture, the voices weaving together to paint a scene of a dimly lit garret chamber. The music evokes the shadows and dust, a mood of solitude and quiet reflection. This evocative setting is suddenly broken by a strain of beautiful music, sung with melting, minor measures. The composer uses the interplay of the four vocal parts to build a sense of wonder and mystery, pondering the source of this unexpected melody in the lonely room. The text, in English, describes this moment, culminating in a question about the skilled musician creating such wondrous art in the midnight gloom. It is a secular piece that captures a moment of poignant beauty.
