Greenery
YV6007

Chinese crane song (SSA)

Music: Sheena Phillips. Words: Edwina Towson
SSA, piano, optional flute & violin
performance time approx 4m 30s
Range S1: c' – f'' / S2: c' – e'' / A: g – b'
Price code: C
Complexity: **

See a perusal copy of the music.
Hear a synthesized realisation
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.

A version for combined SATB and treble choirs was performed in 2007 by Saffron Walden Choral Society (Janet Wheeler, director), and is available on request.

Also available for SATB with optional flute and violin.

Words

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.

Purchase – 6007: Chinese crane song (SSA)

Before you click the "buy" button, please enter the name of your group and select the appropriate size.
Name of group
Size of group
The price depends on the number of singers in your group. This is a single payment for a licence to make as many copies as you need for your group to rehearse and perform the song. You can also re-print - for instance, to replace copies that get lost or worn out.

Copies must not be given, lent, hired or sold to any other group.

Orders are normally despatched within 24 hours - not instantly, because each PDF file is created specially for the purchaser.

Canasg sales are processed via Paypal. Paypal lets you pay with a simple credit or debit card if you don’t have a Paypal account. Your Paypal transaction will be in sterling and it will be converted automatically if your credit card draws on a different currency. Paypal passes none of your secure information to Canasg.

If you would like us to send an invoice before you pay, or if you would like your order priced in $US or Euros, then please e-mail your order to us instead of using the form above.
Canasg Choral Music Publishing
Canasg Music
16 Morningside Park,
Edinburgh EH10 5HB, Scotland
Contact us