The Centennial Cantata.
The Centennial Meditation of Columbia. 1776-1876. A Cantata.
[Musical Annotations, in angled brackets, precede each section.]
[Full chorus: sober, measured and yet majestic progressions of chords.]
From this hundred-terraced height,
Sight more large with nobler light
Ranges down yon towering years.
Humbler smiles and lordlier tears
Shine and fall, shine and fall,
While old voices rise and call
Yonder where the to-and-fro
Weltering of my Long-Ago
Moves about the moveless base
Far below my resting-place.
[Chorus: the sea and the winds mingling their voices with human sighs.]
Mayflower, Mayflower, slowly hither flying,
Trembling westward o'er yon balking sea,
Hearts within `Farewell dear England' sighing,
Winds without `But dear in vain' replying,
Gray-lipp'd waves about thee shouted, crying
'No! It shall not be!'
[Quartette: a meagre and despairing minor.]
Jamestown, out of thee --
Plymouth, thee -- thee, Albany --
Winter cries, `Ye freeze:' away!
Fever cries, `Ye burn:' away!
Hunger cries, `Ye starve:' away!
Vengeance cries, `Your graves shall stay!'
[Full chorus: return of the `motive' of the second movement,
but worked up with greater fury, to the climax of the shout
at the last line.]
Then old Shapes and Masks of Things,
Framed like Faiths or clothed like Kings
Ghosts of Goods once fleshed and fair,
Grown foul Bads in alien air --
War, and his most noisy lords,
Tongued with lithe and poisoned swords --
Error, Terror, Rage and Crime,
All in a windy night of time
Cried to me from land and sea,
`No! Thou shalt not be!'
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poem by Sidney Lanier
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