Frostbound
SATB w. optional soprano solo | Duration c. 4'00"
Commissioned by Wascana Voices in honour of their first five years, Frostbound is a setting of a poem of the same name by the Scottish writer Violet Jacob. My appreciation goes to Arthur Jack for providing me with the opportunity to delve into this rather unusual poem, which alternates frequently between stasis and motion, darkness and light, and fire and ice.
When winter's pulse seems dead beneath the snow,
And has no throb to give,
Warm your cold heart at mine, beloved, and so
Shall your heart live.
For mine is fire - a furnace strong and red;
Look up into my eyes,
There shall you see a flame to make the dead
Take life and rise.
My eyes are brown, and yours are still and grey,
Still as the frostbound lake
Whose depths are sleeping in the icy sway,
And will not wake.
Yes, turn away, grey eyes, you dare not face
In mine the flame of life;
When frost meets fire, 'tis but a little space
That ends the strife.
Then comes the hour, when, breaking from their bands,
The swirling floods run free,
And you, beloved, shall stretch your drowning hands,
And cling to me.
- Violet Jacob