Scored for a cappella chorus, As Torrents in Summer is an excerpt from the epilogue of Sir Edward Elgar’s 1896 cantata, Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf, Op. 30.The text is an adaptation of a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow which tells the story of Olaf Tryggvason, the medieval king of Norway, who brought Christianity to the Scandinavian country.
In As Torrents in Summer, the sustaining force of a far-off summer rainstorm, which refreshes dry riverbeds, becomes a metaphor for the unseen hand of God.
As torrents in summer, Half dried in their channels,
Suddenly rise, tho’ the sky is still cloudlesss.
For rain has been falling.
Far off at their fountains;So hearts that are fainting Grow full to o’erflowing,
And they that behold it, Marvel, and know not
That God at their fountains
Far off has been raining!
Recordings
- Elgar: As Torrents in Summer, Christopher Robinson, Cambridge University Chamber Choir Amazon
Featured Image: “Hadrian’s Wall in an English summer,” photograph by Tyler Rickenbach