One Foot On Sea and One On Shore – Learning Tracks

I was introduced to the beautiful poetry of Christina Rossetti by a friend during lockdown. Like much of her writing, the phrases naturally lend themselves to vocal music, so I found myself in a writers Heaven and have completed several other choral settings to poems of hers since.

One Foot on Sea and One on Shore is for unaccompanied SATB choir with contralto soloist. Although it is essentially a sad reflective piece about parting, the pace is important, so a conductor is essential to keep everyone together and to create the ebb and flow as required. I decided to couple the six verses into three longer verses with a Medieval style ‘Ah’ reprise in between. There are lots of different textures and colours to work on aside from dynamics, which make or break a performance…the melody must never be drowned out!

NB. The soloist line could be taken on by a smaller group of singers.

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