The Tide Rises

For voice and cello

“The Tide Rises” is one of my only songs that sets a text written by another poet. The theme of this song revolves around how nature remains consistent as human life fluctuates, emphasized by the interplay between the cello and vocal lines and the recurring melodic line at the end of every stanza.

Performed by Jolaine Kerley, soprano, and River Buhler, cello

For inquiries about this song, please contact me

The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

The tide rises, the tide falls,
The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;
Along the sea-sands damp and brown
The traveller hastens toward the town,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.

Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in the darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands,
Efface the footprints in the sands,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.

The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls
Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;
The day returns, but nevermore
Returns the traveller to the shore,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.