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Rainfall
Martha Hill Duncan
voice, piano

Secular

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$3.50 for 2 copies of the song

Notes:

From out the west, where darkling stormclouds float, The waking wind pipes soft its rising note.
         E. Pauline Johnson (1862-1913)

This award-winning song captures the excitement and build-up of a summer rainstorm with a vocal line that whips and whirls and a relentless “raindrop” piano accompaniment.  The mixed meters make this piece more challenging, but they also give "Rainfall" its great little groove!

"Rainfall" won 3rd place in the 2005 Diana Barnhart American Song Competition.

Text:

From out the west, where darkling storm-clouds float,
The ‘waking wind pipes soft its rising note.

From out the west, o’erhung with fringes grey,
The wind preludes with sighs its roundelay,

Then blowing, singing, piping, laughing loud,
It scurries on before the grey storm-cloud;

Across the hollow and along the hill
It whips and whirls among the maples, till

With bough upbent, and green of leaves blown wide,
The silver shines upon their underside.

A gusty freshening of humid air,
With showers laden, and with fragrance rare;

And now a little sprinkle, with a dash
Of great cool drops that fall with sudden splash;

Then over field and hollow, grass and grain,
The loud, crisp whiteness of the nearing rain.

- E. Pauline Johnson (1862-1913)

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