Never weather-beaten sail for wind quintet

Category:

Description

This is an instrumental transcription of Parry’s 5 voice anthem from his “Songs of Farewell”.

The words of the original anthem are by Thomas Campion (who also made a musical setting of the words several centuries earlier) –

Never weather-beaten sail more willing bent to shore,
Never tired pilgrim’s limbs affected slumber more,
Than my weary sprite now longs to fly out of my troubled breast:
O come quickly, sweetest Lord, and take my soul to rest.

Ever-living are the joys of Heaven’s high Paradise,
Cold age deafs not there our ears nor vapour dims our eyes:
Glory there the sun outshines, whose beams the blessed only see:
O come quickly, sweetest Lord, and raise my sprite to Thee!