The Message (Alfred James Caldicott)

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• (Posted 2023-09-29)  CPDL #75874:     

Editor: David Anderson (submitted 2023-09-29).   Score information: Letter, 12 pages, 798 kB   Copyright: Personal

Edition notes:

General Information

Title: The Message
Composer: Alfred James Caldicott
Lyricist: Adelaide Anne Procter
Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB, minor divisi
Genre: Secular, Partsong

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1886 J. Curwen & Sons
Description: 

Original text and translations

English text

I had a Message to send her,
To her whom my soul loved best;
But I had my task to finish,
And she was gone home to rest.

To rest in the far bright Heaven;
Oh, so far away from here,
It was vain to speak to my darling,
For I knew she could not hear!

I had a message to send her
So tender, and true, and sweet,
I longed for an Angel to bear it,
And lay it down at her feet.

I placed it, one Summer evening,
On a Cloudlet’s fleecy breast;
But it faded in golden splendour,
And died in the crimson west.

I gave it the Lark next morning,
And I watched it soar and soar;
But its pinions grew faint and weary,
And it fluttered to Earth once more.

Then I cried, in my passionate longing:—
“Has the Earth no Angel-friend
Who will carry my love the message
My heart desires to send?”

Then I heard a strain of music,
So mighty, so pure, so clear,
That my very sorrow was silenc’d,
And my heart stood still to hear.

It rose in harmonious rushing
Of mingled voices and strings,
And I tenderly laid my message
On the Music’s outspread wings.

I heard it float farther and farther,
In sound more perfect than speech;
Farther than sight can follow,
Farther than soul can reach.

And I know that at last my message
Has passed through the golden gate:
So my heart is no longer restless,
And I am content to wait.

Legends and Lyrics
I. Sent to Heaven