The English composer, John Ireland (1879-1962), was a mystic and an introvert. He found spiritual significance in ancient pagan sites which dot the “green and pleasant” countryside of his native land. Throughout his life, he was drawn back to the Channel Islands, the archipelago off the rugged Normandy coast.
An a cappella choral setting of a poem by James Kirkup, The Hills is an ode to the timeless majesty of the English countryside. It was Ireland’s contribution to A Garland for the Queen, a collection of choral works by ten British composers, using the words of living poets. Commissioned for the June, 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the project was inspired by The Triumphs Of Oriana, a book of English madrigals published in 1601 to honor the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
This performance features conductor Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé Choir:
How calm, how constant are the hills!
How green and white and golden in
The summer light! Their lakes, their leaping wells Are bright with flower, leaf, and rain,
And their profounder rivers run
From rocks that are the altars of the sun.
How calm, how constant are the hills!
Our time’s dark gale of ice and fire
Thunders around them, but removes them never. No tempest overthrows their strong humility. They are both god and temple, and their stones Are holy, the earth’s enduring thrones.
-James Kirkup
Recordings
- Ireland: The Hills, Sir Mark Elder, Hallé Choir Chandos.net
Featured Image: the Yorkshire Dales, photographer unknown