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Programme Note

Bring rest, sweet dreaming child, a carol setting the poem by Mark Pryce, was commissioned by Sam Laughton and the Elysian Singers of London with generous financial assistance from the PRS Foundation. It received its première in St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden in a performance on 21st December, 2004 conducted by Sam Laughton. This version for soprano and alto voices was completed in January 2005.

Text
If you came at night,
Pushing your way down the long dark
Out into starlight;
Come now into our anxious, sleepless hours:
Bring rest, sweet dreaming child.

If you came at dawn,
Lifting a voice from the dumb void,
Your new song born;
Speak now into our shouting, stifled days:
Bring praise, sweet singing child.

If you came at day’s
Noon, spreading out your arms to shade
From anger’s fierce sun-blaze;
Reach now into our frenzied, drifting years:
Bring peace, sweet trusting child.

If you came at dusk,
Warming our chill fears with the blood
Of love’s sure pulse;
Touch now the numb limbs of our fading lives:
Bring love, sweet breathing child.



Tarik O’Regan
New York, January 2005