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Carol Barnett
Carol Barnett (Beady Eyes)
Golden Slumbers
Can a cradle rock in 5/4? This one does, carrying us to faraway harmonic regions before returning to a reassuring final cadence.
SATB divisi, a cappella
Written during the composer’s tenure with the Dale Warland Singers, this little lullaby explores extended tonality, smoothly modulating to various far-flung tonal centers and finally returning to a peaceful A major. The recurring 5/4 time signature guarantees that the rhythmic flow glides gently on, unaccented.
Composer’s Notes
Working with the Dale Warland Singers introduced me to a whole new repertoire – as an instrumentalist, I was hearing many of the great choral standards for the first time. I fell in love with the Russians, especially Rachmaninoff, and some of their lush harmonic language found its way into Golden Slumbers. The Thomas Dekker text has been altered slightly to make it suitable as a Christmas lullaby.
– Carol Barnett
Text
Golden slumbers kiss your eyes;
Smiles awake you when you rise.
Sleep. pretty wanton, do not cry,
And I will sing a lullaby:
Rock Him, rock Him, lullaby.
Care is heavy, therefore sleep you;
You are care, and care must keep you.
Sleep pretty wanton, do not cry,
And I will sing a lullaby:
Rock Him, rock Him, lullaby.
– Thomas Dekker (1572-1632)
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