Froxfield Choir

Edward Elgar: As Torrents in Summer (1896)

Partsongs are harmonised melodies written for a full choir, a style that grew out of the revived interest in the madrigal form in the nineteenth century. Elgar was a master of partsong writing and used texts of the highest standard. As Torrents in Summer was originally written as the final chorus of The Saga of King Olaf, a now largely forgotten cantata. The chorus forms the moving climax and is acknowledged to be the best music in the cantata. The text is by Henry Longfellow, part of his Tales of a Wayside Inn. The gentle harmonies evoke the soft fall of summer rain, building up like the rush of strong water before gently receding.

As torrents in summer, Half dried in their channels,
Suddenly rise, tho' the sky is still cloudless.
For rain has been falling.
Far off at their fountains;

So hearts that are fainting Grow full to o'erflowing,
And they that behold it, Marvel, and know not
That God at their fountains
Far off has been raining!