Words: Sarah Williams (1837–1868).

Music: Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809).

Parts: 5

Range: 15 half-steps

Difficulty: Harder to learn.

Our recordings

• Teaching:
• Round (demonstrated in 3 parts):

Lyrics

Though my soul may set in darkness,

it will rise in perfect light;

( ) I have loved the stars too

fondly to be fearful of the

night, fearful of the night.

Notes

The words are a slight variation of a couplet from Sarah Williams’s 1868 poem “The Old Astronomer,” sometimes known as “The Old Astronomer to His Pupil.”

We don’t know who set these words to this music.

Recordings elsewhere

Recorded by The Rounds Galore and More Singers: “Perfect Light,” on Rounds Galore … and More, Volume 3.

Music copyright © 2010 by Lane Waldman. Recorded and published by permission of the composer.

Words: Christina Rossetti (1830–1894).

Music: Lane Waldman.

Parts: 4

Range: 17 half-steps

Difficulty: Harder to learn.

Our recordings

• Teaching:
• Round (demonstrated in 4 parts):

Lyrics

From Christina Rossetti’s poem “A Birthday.”

My heart is like a singing bird whose nest is in a water’d shoot;

my heart is like an apple-tree whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit; my

heart is like a rainbow shell that paddles in a halcyon sea; my

heart is gladder than all these, because my love is come to me.