Falling leaves (Rhys Thomas)

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• (Posted 2023-12-13)  CPDL #78174:     

Editor: David Anderson (submitted 2023-12-13).   Score information: Letter, 12 pages, 717 kB   Copyright: Personal

Edition notes:

General Information

Title: Falling leaves
Composer: Rhys Thomas
Lyricist: Andrew J. Foxwell
Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1898 J. Curwen & Sons
Description: 

Original text and translations

English text

The autumn leaves are falling fast,
And flutter to the chilly ground;
Trees stand as if in sad surprise,
No more with wealth of verdure crowned.

We feel that summer days are gone,
That hopes will fade in coming gloom,
That all we view is but a type
Of mortals hasting to the tomb!

Ah! could we look beneath the shell
That points yon twig so thin and bare,
We should behold a tender bud
Now swelling in its prison there.

By this the leaf is forced away,
And sinks enfeebled from the strife;
A proof of nature’s ceaseless work,
A token of the dawn of life!

So, when the scythe of Time shall sweep
Our bodies from the scenes of earth,
Then shall the life within be freed,
And waken to a nobler birth.

For here we do not see the end,
This lower state no rest can be;
We leave it, and begin to live,
For death is immortality!