The Grey Selchie
SSA choral/piano score
PEL2010-Choir and Piano
Instrumental part
PEL2010-IP
A WORK FOR SSA CHOIR AND PIANO WITH OPTIONAL ORGAN OR SYNTH PADS
"The Grey Selchie" is a haunting and very atmospheric arrangement of the traditional Scottish folksong which tells the tragic legend of the grey selchie (a man upon the land, a seal in the sea) and his beloved little son.
For harried souls in troubled times, “Untraveled Worlds” CD offers a room with a panoramic view of images beckoning from beyond the scope of everyday experience.”
- Jennifer Kolmes, The American Organist magazine
Video
Texts
The Grey Selchie
Words and music: Traditional Scottish
Arranged by Paul Halley (1952 - )
In Noraway there sits a maid.
Bye-loo my baby she begins.
Little know I my child’s father,
Or if land or sea he’s living in.
Then there arose at her bed feet
An grumley guest, I’m sure it was he,
Saying here am I, thy child’s father,
Although that I am not comely.
I am a man upon the land,
I am a selchie in the sea,
And when I am in my own country,
My dwelling is in Su Skerrie.
Then he hath taken a purse of gold
And he hath put it upon her knee,
Saying give to me my little wee son,
And take thee up thy nurses fee.
And it shall come to pass on a summer’s day,
When the sun shines hot on ev’ry stone,
That I shall take my little wee son
And I’ll teach him for to swim in the foam.
And you will marry a gunner good.
And a proud good gunner I’m sure he’ll be.
And he will go out on a May morning,
And kill both my wee son and me.
And lo! she did marry a gunner good.
And a proud good gunner I’m sure it was he,
And the very first shot that e’re he did shoot,
He killed the son and the grey selchie.
Reviews
"For harried souls in troubled times, “Untraveled Worlds” CD offers a room with a panoramic view of images beckoning from beyond the scope of everyday experience.” - Jennifer Kolmes, The American Organist magazine
