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03/11/2019

Music for All Souls' Day

A setting by the composer Celia Harper of Grahame Davies's poem 'Song for Samhain' has received its premiere at the Music and Silence concert at the church of St Vincent de Paul in Osterley, London on November 3rd.

Chiswick Baroque performed the piece, whose title is a reference to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, at which time it was supposed that the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead grows thin.

A recording can be heard

Song for Samhain

 The wall between the worlds grows thin

when darkness falls on Samhain night.

Open the door and let the dead come in.

Fine as the filigree which spiders spin

to hold the leaves of autumn in their flight,

the wall between the worlds grows thin.

Those who are safe past sanctity and sin,

those who have gone the dark road to the light.

Open the door and let the dead come in.

Wind at the keyhole; cold upon the skin;

shapes in the shadow, sheltered from the sight.

The wall between the worlds grows thin.

Love from our lost ones, kindness from our kin,

prayers that we pray, and blessings we recite,

open the door and let the dead come in.

Now let the season of the soul begin;

welcome the wanderers who return tonight.

The wall between the worlds grows thin.

Open the door and let the dead come in.