Give Me the Splendid Silent Sun

Barlow Bradford's Utah Chamber Artists perform "Give Me the Splendid Silent Sun". Bradford put Walt Whitman's words from Leaves of Grass to music in this choral work.


GIVE me the splendid silent sun, with all his beams full-dazzling;
Give me juicy autumnal fruit, ripe and red from the orchard;
Give me a field where the unmow'd grass grows;
Give me an arbor, give me the trellis'd grape;
Give me fresh corn and wheat—give me serene-moving animals, teaching content;

Give me nights perfectly quiet, and I looking up at the stars;
Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers, where I can walk undisturb'd;
Give me for marriage a sweet-breath'd woman, of whom I should never tire;
Give me a perfect child—give me, away, aside from the noise of the world, a rural, domestic life;
Give me to warble spontaneous songs, reliev'd, recluse by myself, for my own ears only;
Give me solitude—give me Nature—give me again, O Nature, your primal sanities!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• utah
• chamber
• artists
• barlow
• bradford
• walt
• whitman
• choral