Where Go the Boats? - song for baritone and piano
Hello all, I just finished the first version of a new song for my Stevenson cycle, and would be very interested to hear your feedback at this point in the process. It's based on the poem "Where Go the Boats?", which is one of my favorite poems of the Child's Garden of Verses: I think the poem achieves a really good balance between simplicity and poignancy, and I've tried to achieve a similar effect with the song.
Recording (MIDI): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FRya5KaHccaSrX8uFs7tAsHsKkPOnE5_/view?usp=sharing
Score: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-Wk70VgQOqA7fxvFYF_06DkGt1ZEnWW4/view?usp=sharing
Poem:
Dark brown is the river.
Golden is the sand.
It flows along for ever,
With trees on either hand.
Green leaves a-floating,
Castles of the foam,
Boats of mine a-boating—
Where will all come home?
On goes the river
And out past the mill,
Away down the valley,
Away down the hill.
Away down the river,
A hundred miles or more,
Other little children
Shall bring my boats ashore.
Posted Aug 13, 2026, 4:35 PM UTC