SP3019
Chinese crane song
Music: Sheena Phillips, Words: Edwina Towson
Voicing: SATB, optional flute & violin
Performance time approx: 3m 45s (4m 30s with intro.)
Range S: c' – f'' / A: g – b' / T: c – e' / B: c – b
Price code: C
Complexity:
Edwina Towson’s lyrics conjure images of life in rural China from the perspective of the crane bird in flight. Spare harmonies and doublings by the accompanying instruments give the piece a distinctive timbre, evocative of Chinese music without being authentically so. The piece is through-composed, with elements of repetition and variation in both lyrics and music throughout. If using instrumental accompaniment, the first 17 bars of the flute part can be used as an introduction.
White feather, grey feather, cranes fly far.
High water, low water, where you ever are
There are wings in the wind, there are wings in the sky.
White feather, grey feather, fly, crane, fly.
Over the red pagoda,
Above the green fields of rice,
Along the banks of the blue Su Xian
To the mountain tops of ice:
There are wings in the wind, there are wings in the sky.
White feather, grey feather, fly, crane, fly.
Wide bird glides over empty hill-sides,
Across the sleeping yellow town.
Below is the pine and the hermit's shrine
If the eye of the crane look down:
High water, low water, where you ever are
White feather, grey feather, cranes fly far.
Plum flower and tall bamboo,
Flat-bottomed boats with a fisherman crew,
Pottery kilns, watch-tower's height
Under the spread of the China bird's flight:
There are wings in the wind, there are wings in the sky.
White feather, grey feather, fly, crane, fly.
White feather, grey feather, cranes fly far.
High water, low water, where you ever are
There are wings in the wind, there are wings in the sky.
White feather, grey feather, fly, crane, fly.
Words © Edwina Towson and used with permission.