This expressive SATB setting of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Tears, Idle Tears opens with a gentle and repeating invocations of “Tears, idle tears” (page 1), creating an atmosphere of longing and introspection. The voices move in rich, closely spaced harmonies that gradually build in emotional weight as the text unfolds.

On page 2, phrases such as “Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes” gain momentum through rising melodic contours and expanding homophonic textures. By the middle pages (3–4), lines like “Fresh as the first beam… sad as the last which reddens over one that sinks with all we love” are set with warm, sustained chords and expressive dynamic shaping, mirroring the poem’s bittersweet imagery.

The later pages (5–7) highlight dramatic contrasts: luminous descriptions of nature are paired with tender dissonances and unified rhythmic pacing. The final page (page 8) resolves the emotional arc with a spacious, reflective cadence on the repeated line “the days that are no more.”

This setting offers choirs a deeply expressive, text-driven work filled with warm Romantic harmonies, lyrical phrasing, and emotional nuance — ideal for concert programs seeking depth and poetic resonance.

Voices:

Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass