Page 2 - Rutter Gaelic Blessing SATB New Edition

The Royal School of Church Music
19 The Close, Salisbury, Wilts, SP1 2EB
Tel: +44 (0)1722 424848 Fax: +44 (0)1722 424849 E-mail: press@rscm.com Website: www.rscm.com Registered charity 312828
Text as it appears in William Sharp’s The Dominion of Dreams (1909 edition)
The text of A Gaelic Blessing, long believed to be a translation of an ancient Gaelic original, is now known to be the work of the Scottish author and poet William Sharp (1855–1905) who sometimes wrote under the pseudonym Fiona MacLeod. He was an apostle of the Celtic revival, a member of W. B. Yeats’s circle, and the literary source of Rutland Boughton’s once-popular opera The Immortal Hour. The Gaelic Blessing text is part of a longer poem beginning ‘Deep peace I breathe unto you’ which forms the conclusion of a short story The Amadan, first published in 1895 under Sharp’s pseudonym. The line ‘Moon and stars pour their healing light on you’ was added by John Rutter to suit the metre of his musical setting.
Performance hints by the composer . . .
The main challenge is to create a good balance between the voice parts. The sopranos, who alone have the complete text in bars 3–26, should be predominant until the start of bar 27, with the other voices providing a gentle background. It may help to have half the altos, tenors and basses hum rather than sing the words until bar 27, from which point all voices should sing the words till the end.
Publisher’s note
This piece is also published in versions for upper voices (SSA, with piano) and for unison voices (or solo voice) with piano.
The present mixed-voice version is scored for harp and strings. Conductor’s scores and instrumental parts are available to purchase from the RSCM or its appointed agent.
Note: the orchestration is not compatible with the upper-voice or unison versions.