ISBJØRN!

by Nicholas Fairbank

Home 9 Composers 9 NICHOLAS FAIRBANK 9 ISBJØRN!

Cypress Choral Music · Isbjørn! – mvt 1. “Let us Probe the Silent Places” – by Nicholas Fairbank

featuring, Ensemble Laude, CappriCCio Vocal Ensemble and members of Hexaphone

Cypress Choral Music · ISBJØRN! – mvt 2. “Let Us Embark” – By Nicholas Fairbank

Cypress Choral Music · ISBJØRN! – mvt 3. “Isbjørn” – by Nicholas Fairbank

Cypress Choral Music · ISBJØRN! – mvt 4. “Ice Colours” – by Nicholas Fairbank

we hope to replace this simulation with genuine voices soon

Cypress Choral Music · ISBJØRN! – mvt 5. “Aurora” – by Nicholas Fairbank

LYRICS

1. Let us probe the silent places

Let us probe the silent places, let us seek what luck betide us;
Let us journey to a lonely land I know.
There’s a whisper on the night-wind, there’s a star agleam to guide us,

And the Wild is calling, calling . . . let us go.

[from “The Call of the Wild,” Robert Service (1916)]

2. Let us embark into silver twilight

Let us embark into silver twilight,
carefully through immense sacred silence
swiftly within frigid waters
embrace forgotten names.
Here where our dreamings meet memories distant
we will be free to quicken our yearning.
Here let us declare: “Golden courage abounds,” travelling on ever-changing horizons
singing dawn’s light,
tracing, awakening faceted prisms.
Ancient memory holds
olded grey dawn, infinite translucence, pale ice-blue sky.

Let us welcome transformative vision,
rediscovery, distant sunlight aflame.
Glassy sculpture, glowing snow-covered jade,
blinding turquoise, rhythmic indigo swell,
brilliant frost, pyramid sentinels, inky violet deeps.

[Marcus Lund (2012), by permission of the author]

3. Isbjørn

Isbjørn –
Powerfully pads across the ice-flows,
Silently swims across the frigid seas,
Mystic creature.
“I am the Ice-bear, mystic creature of the polar spaces, king of my domain.
I haunt the ice unseen, unheard;
I am predator supreme, prey to none.
Isbjørn!

[Nicholas Fairbank (2012)]

4. Ice Colours

white, chalk-white, snow-white, talc-white, pale grey, ash-grey,

pearl-grey, white, blue, green-blue, milk-blue, blue-grey,
grey, white, dove-white, grey, pale grey,
aquamarine,
blue

5. Aurora

This movement has no written text.

VIEW SCORE

SATB SCORE (CP 1907) – Mvt. #1 – Let Us Probe the Silent Places
SATB SCORE (CP 1908) – Mvt. #2 – Let Us Embark into Silver Twilight
SATB SCORE (CP 1909) – Mvt. #3 – Isbjōrn
SATB SCORE (CP 1910) – Mvt. #4 – Ice Colours
SATB SCORE (CP 1911) – Mvt. #5 – Aurora