• TTBB divisi, unaccompanied

• Music by Lane Johnson

• Words by William Wordsworth

• Level: Advanced

• Duration: ~3:50

The text for The Fountain is from a larger conversation poem by Wordsworth, where young and old are together beneath a tree by a natural fountain. The poem begins:

We talked with open heart, and tongue
Affectionate and true,
A pair of friends, though I was young,
And Matthew seventy-two.

Then the older man grows melancholy, and it seems the fountain is causing him to look back to his younger days. He reflects on the changes that inevitably accompany life as time passes, yet he finds joy through comforting memories.

This setting for men's chorus of a piece of the poem attempts to capture a bit of both melancholy and comfort.

Suitable for intermediate and advanced TTBB choruses.