Froxfield Choir

Arthur Sullivan: Echoes (1868)

Many of Sullivan’s Savoy operas contain partsongs and madrigals, but he also composed a handful of stand-alone pieces which epitomise the harmonies of the Victorian partsong. Echoes is a setting of Echo by Thomas Moore (1779-1852). As would be expected, the piece makes use of frequent repetitions of the same phrase, but does not fall into a simplistic echo style, instead going for something bolder and more narrative.

How sweet the answer Echo makes
To music at night,
When, rous'd by lute or horn, she wakes,
And, far away o'er lawns and lakes,
Goes answ'ring light,
answ'ring light!

How sweet the answer Echo makes
To music at night,
When, rous'd by lute or horn, she wakes,
And, far away o'er lawns and lakes,
Goes answ'ring light,
Goes answ'ring light!

Yet Love hath echoes truer far,
And far more sweet
Than e'er beneath the moonlight's star,
Of horn, or lute, or soft guitar,
The songs repeat,
The songs repeat.

Yet Love hath echoes truer far,
And far more sweet
Than e'er beneath the moonlight's star,
Of horn, or lute, or soft guitar,
The songs repeat,
The songs repeat.

'Tis when the sigh in youth sincere,
And only then,
The sigh that's breath'd for one to hear
Is by that one, that only Dear,
Breath'd back again,
Breath'd back again.

'Tis when the sigh in youth sincere,
And only then,
The sigh that's breath'd for one to hear
Is by that one, that only Dear,
Is by that one, that only Dear,
Breath'd back, breath'd back again.