Submarines (Edward Elgar)

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• (Posted 2023-10-12)  CPDL #76287:     

Editor: David Anderson (submitted 2023-10-12).   Score information: Letter, 8 pages, 326 kB   Copyright: Personal

Edition notes:

General Information

Title: Submarines
Composer: Edward Elgar
Lyricist: Rudyard Kipling
Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong

Language: English
Instruments: Piano

First published: 1918 Enoch & Sons
Description: The Fringes of the Fleet, No. 3

In 1915, The Daily Telegraph commissioned Rudyard Kipling to write articles on aspects of the defense of the nation on the sea. They were subsequently published in a booklet titled “The Fringes of the Fleet”. Each section was prefaced by a short poem. In 1916 Lord Charles Beresford asked Elgar to set of some of the verses as songs. Elgar chose to set four of them as a song-cycle, originally for four men’s voices. They were quite popular and Elgar re-wrote them for mixed voices.

Original text and translations

English text

Tin Fish

The ships destroy us above
And ensnare us beneath.
We arise, we lie down, and we move
In the belly of Death.

The ships have a thousand eyes
To mark where we come . . .
But the mirth of a seaport dies
When our blow gets home.