(Died October 7, 1918)
'SONGS OF FAREWELL'
The Wireless Chorus, conducted by STANFORD ROBINSON
There is an Old Belief
I Know My Soul Hath Power My Soul, There is a Country Never, Weather-beaten Sail
At the Round Earth's Imagined Corners. Lord, Let Me Know Mine End
TOWARDS the close of his life. during the war, Sir Hubert Parry wrote the beautiful ' Songs of Farewell' for unaccompanied voices.
' There is an Old Belief ' (originally ' It Is An Old Belief ') is supposed to be by Sir Walter Scott 's biographer, J. G. Lockhart. It is set for six voices-two Sopranos, Alto, Tenor and two Basses. Some of the lines run thus :-
' It is an old belief
That on some solemn shore,
Beyond the sphere of grief,
Dear friends shall meet once more ;
That creed I fain would keep, This hope I'll not forgo.'
' I know my soul hath power to know all things" Yet she is blind and ignorant' is the burden of John Davies ' poem, set for four voices.
The next piece is Henry Vaughan 's ' My soul,

is a country far beyond the stars.
* Leave then, thy foolish ranges.
For none can thee secure
But One who never changes,
Thy God, thy life, thy cure '
The words of ' Never weather-beaten sail more willing bent to shore ... Than my wearied sprite now longs to fly out of my troubled breast ' are by Thomas Campion , the poet-musician-physician of Tudor days.
' Ever blooming are the joys of Heaven's high paradise ... O, come quickly, glorious Lord, and raise my sprite to Thee,' ends this heart-felt plea. For the next song Parry set for seven-part choir a poem of John Donne :
'At the round earth's imagined corners blow your trumpets, angels, and arise from death, you numberless infinities of souls ...
But let me mourn a space,
For if above all these my sins abound,
'Tis late to ask abundance of Thy grace
When we arc there.
Teach me how to repent,
For that's as good as if Thou'dst sealed My pardon with Thy blood.'
' Lord, lot me know mine end,' the longest of the songs, is a noble setting for Double Choir (eight parts) of verses from Psalm 39.