Songs Sacred and Profane is a song cycle for voice and piano composed in 192931 by John Ireland (18791962). (The John Ireland Trust gives a composition date of 1943, but appears to be in error unless the composer revised the work in that year.) It consists of settings of six poems by various poets.
A typical performance takes about 14 minutes. The songs are:
"The Advent" (Alice Meynell (18471922); "Meditation", from Preludes (1875)) "Hymn for a Child" (Sylvia Townsend Warner (18931978)) "My Fair" (Meynell) "The Salley Gardens" (W. B. Yeats (18651939); "An Old Song Re-Sung", from The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems (1889)) "The Soldier's Return" (Warner; from The Espalier (1925)) "The Scapegoat" (Warner; from The Espalier)
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