The Witches’ flight (Henry Ernest Nichol)

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• (Posted 2023-11-21)  CPDL #77523:     

Editor: David Anderson (submitted 2023-11-21).   Score information: Letter, 8 pages, 330 kB   Copyright: Personal

Edition notes:

General Information

Title: The Witches’ flight
Composer: Henry Ernest Nichol
Lyricist:
Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1893 J. Curwen & Sons
Description: 

Original text and translations

English text

When in the tower the owls do screech,
We fly by night;
We wither all within our reach
With noisome blight.
About our path the bats do fly,
The frogs do croak as we pass by,
The faithful housedogs howl and bark,
As on our deadly errand dark
We fly, we fly!

On awful shapes of dismal cloud
We witches ride;
The darkness follows like a shroud
As on we glide.
Where moonbeams play in darkened hall
Our weird and flitting shadows fall,
We haunt the tombs and churchyard graves,
And where the tempest loudly raves
We fly, we fly!

O’er town and village, house and farm,
By night we sweep;
The folks below, not fearing harm,
Are wrapt in sleep.
But with a horrid nightmare dream
We rouse the sleeper with a scream,
The children in their beds we scare,
Then off again through cloud and air
We fly, we fly!

“Colin Sterne”