Last week I wrote about a setting of a deep, thoughtful, and troubling poem of William Blake, conjuring up dark forests and frightening beasts of prey – so by contrast, here’s a much less challenging poem in praise of Springtime! The poem is by the eighteenth century John Newton, sailor, reformed slave trader, abolitionist, and cleric. A man who was not afraid to put his soul on the line in ‘Amazing Grace’ – but here is in much more bucolic mood, in this joyful song of praise.
As one of the hymns he wrote for his parish in Olney, Buckinghamshire, it’s printed in the original 1906 English Hymnal, and although it’s much less sung as a hymn these days, its bright and happy lines inspired me to write a new melody for it, as the second movement of my cantata ‘Welcome Spring’. This is a short and light-hearted cantata for choir and strings (or piano), whose four movements take us from melting snow to the glory and promise of summer, and which was commissioned and first performed by the Maia Singers and Stockport Youth Choir, director John Pomphrey.
Here’s the first verse of Newton’s poem:
Kindly Spring again is here,
Trees and fields in bloom appear,
Hark! The birds with artless lays
Warble their creator’s praise.
In my setting I use this verse as a chorus, flanking the two other verses. The melodic line couldn’t be simpler – just rising and falling scales – and in the accompaniment there are hints of birds (including cuckoos) trilling and calling. The intervening verses continue the simple and open scale-wise character, twisting and turning the melody in various directions. So there is nothing complicated about it, and I hope in its simplicity it gives a feeling of youthful joy.
You can hear Hymn to Spring here, with words, and springtime views of the village church of Friston (Suffolk) and the surrounding fields
And the complete cantata, Welcome Spring! is here, with scrolling score
And purchase details are here – I can also supply this movement individually, though it doesn’t say so on the website.