A Rune of hospitality – I saw a stranger yestreen – for clarinet quartet

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Description

I was entranced by the poem retrieved and translated from an ancient rune by Kenneth Macleod and I set it to music many years ago, calling it “The Crofter’s Song”.
This was one of the first of my songs using the Dorian mode.
Since the works of the Rev Kenneth Macleod are still in copyright,
I have not published the song itself, but various instrumental versions of my musical setting are available

Since the words of Macleod’s translation are nevertheless available in many places online, you may like to follow the way my music here inteprets them:

[dorian section]
I saw a stranger yestreen;
I put the food in the eating place,
Drink in the drinking place,
Music in the listening place;

[major section]
In the sacred name of the Triune,
He blessed myself and my house,
My cattle and my dear ones.

[major section]
And the lark said in her song,
Often, often, often,
Often goes the Christ in the stranger’s guise;
Often, often, often,
Often goes the Christ in the stranger’s guise.

[final dorian section]
I saw a stranger yestreen;