Pied Beauty
An a cappella setting for mixed chorus of a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins.
Duration: 3' 25"
Difficulty: 4/5 (Difficulty Rating Overview)
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VOICES
Mixed Chorus (a cappella, divisi, no solos)
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Pied Beauty
Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89)
GLORY be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.
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Pied Beauty was composed for Richard Nance and Pacific Lutheran University's Choir of the West. It was premiered on 3 May 2016 at Lagerquist Hall, Mary Baker Music Center, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, WA by the Choir of the West with Richard Nance conducting. Pied Beauty was recorded in January 2022 for the album J.A.C. Redford: Dappled Things by London Voices directed by Ben Parry.
Purchase Pied Beauty
Choral Scores:
Order one score per singer plus one each for the conductor and the rehearsal pianist. Scores are delivered as PDF files. Purchase of choral scores includes permission to make the number of copies ordered.
Pricing:
Choral Score - $1.80