Away From The Roll Of The Sea
SATB choral/piano score
LL106-Choir and Piano
Optional Organ Part
LL106-Organ
A WORK FOR SATB CHOIR AND PIANO WITH OPTIONAL ORGAN PART
Words and Music: Allister MacGillivray (1948-); Music arranged by Paul Halley
With MacGillivray's permission, Paul Halley originally arranged this work for the children's choir, Chorus Angelicus, and later re-voiced the arrangement for SATB for the Capella Regalis Men and Boys Choir CD release and concert entitled 'Songs of the Sea'. Paul Halley's rolling piano style undergirds the gentle undulations of this arrangement.
Allister MacGillivray is a Canadian singer and songwriter from the Cape Breton region of Nova Scotia. He was born in 1948 in the coalmining and fishing town of Glace Bay, NS. 'Away From The Roll Of The Sea' is one of MacGillivray's best known titles along with 'Song For The Mira'.
Video
Notes
About this work, notes by Vanessa Halley, daughter of Paul Halley, for the Capella Regalis Men and Boys Choir recording "Songs of the Sea" (2025):
"Allister MacGillivray is a well-known Canadian musician hailing from Cape Breton here in Nova Scotia. His song Away From The Roll Of The Sea, so evocative of the peace of a sheltered harbour and the hope for safe and plentiful journeys in future, is an annual favourite on Capella Regalis tour programs and resonates deeply with our Maritime audiences. Paul arranged it years ago for our choirs, with Allister’s blessing."
Texts
Away From The Roll Of The Sea
Words and Music: A. MacGillivray (b.1948)
Arranged by Paul Halley (1952-)
Small craft in a harbour that’s still and serene
Give no indication what their ways have been.
They rock at their moorings all nestled in dreams,
Away from the roll of the sea.
Their stern lines are groaning a lullaby air,
A ghost in the cuddy, a gull on the spar.
But never they whisper of journeys afar,
Away from the roll of the sea.
Oh, had they the tongues for to speak,
What tales of adventure they’d weave,
But now they are anchored
To sleep and slumber alee.
Come fair winds to wake them tomorrow we pray.
Come harvest aplenty to them ev’ry day
Till guided by harbour lights they’re home to stay,
Away from the roll of the sea.
