Ye distant spires (John Wall Callcott)

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  • (Posted 2021-02-08)  CPDL #62756:  Network.png
Editor: Christopher Shaw (submitted 2021-02-08).   Score information: A4, 5 pages, 240 kB   Copyright: Personal
Edition notes: Please click on the link for preview/playback/PDF download.

General Information

Title: Ye distant spires
Composer: John Wall Callcott
Lyricist: Thomas Gray

Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: ATTB

Genre: SecularGlee

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1790
Description:  A setting of the opening of Gray's Ode on a distant prospect of Eton College.

External websites:

Original text and translations

English.png English text

Ye distant spires, ye antique towers,
That crown the watery glade,
Where grateful science still adores
Her Henry's holy shade;
And ye, that from the stately brow
Of Windsor's heights the expanse below
Of grove, of lawn, of mead survey,
Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among
Wanders the hoary Thames along
His silver-winding way.

Ah happy hills, ah pleasing shade,
Ah fields beloved in vain,
Where once my careless childhood strayed,
A stranger yet to pain!
I feel the gales, that from ye blow,
A momentary bliss bestow,
As waving fresh their gladsome wing,
My weary soul they seem to soothe,
And, redolent of joy and youth,
To breathe a second spring.