MUSA / Sample Edition (music, "Vestiunt Silve")

PERFORMANCE NOTES

PREMIERE: Harrison began writing Vestiunt Silve on April 4, 1951 and completed the work July 4, 1994. The piece received its premiere on August 18, 1994, at the Dartington International Summer School and Festival at Dartington Hall, Totnes, Devon, England.
Articulation.: Tenuto marks represent a "push" or stress, not an attack and not a lengthening of the note value. In the case of long notes tied to an eighth note, the eighth note is marked staccato if the same pitch is taken over by another instrument. Slurs without a terminal note in the harp indicate "LV" (let vibrate or laissez vibrer); a rest after these incomplete slurs does not imply a release; simply allow the sound to die away gradually.

Vestiunt Silve1

Vestiunt silve tenera merorem
virgulta, suis onerata pomis;
canunt de celsis sedibus palumbes
    carmina cunctis.

Hic turtur gemit, resonat hic turdus,
pangit hic priscos merula sonores;
passer nec tacet, arridens garritu
    alta sub ulmo.

Hic leta canit philomela frondis,
longas effundit sibilum per auras
sollempne; milvus tremulaque voce
    ethera pulsat.

Ad astra volat aquila; in auris
alauda canit, modulos resolvit,
de sursum vergit dissimili modo,
    dum terram tangit.

Velox impellit rugitus hirundo,
clangit coturnix, graculus fringultit;
aves sic cuncte celebrant estivum
    undique carmen

[Nulla inter aves similis est api,
que talem tipum gerit castitatis
nisi que Christum baiulavit alvo
    inviolata.]

Translation by Mary Kay Gamel (used by permission)

The forests are getting dressed. They cover
their gloom with soft buds, droop with their fruit.
From their sky-high perches, the ring-doves sing their songs
    to all who listen

A turtle-dove complains here, a thrush answers
while a blackbird composes its age-old sounds.
Under a tall elm a chattering sparrow
    just can't keep quiet.

Among the leaves over there, a nightingale
happily pours out in long-lasting measure
its usual whistle. A kite beats the air
    with its voice's pulse.

Up to the stars flies an eagle! And up there,
the lark is practicing scales to the breezes.
But the melody's different when it swoops back down
    and touches the earth.

A fast-moving swallow drives forth its cries,
a quail is clucking, a crow caws:
that's how the birds welcome the summer—
    everywhere, singing!

[But none of the birds resembles the bee,
who possesses a chastity only She matches,
that stainless One who in her womb
    carried the Christ-child.]

1 Latin text as given in Karl Breul, ed., The Cambridge Songs: A Goliard's Song Book of the XIth Century (Cambridge: University Press, 1915; reprint New York: AMS Press, 1973), 63.