Harvest Home

Harvest Home (1937/97)


Harvest Home, on a text of the English, Jacobean poet, Robert Herrick, was composed for the Lehman Engle Madrigal Singers in 1937.  The performance was disappointing and I put the score away intending to revise it, but never did, until John Oliver asked me about it in 1995.  I retrieved it and it was performed in 1997 for the first time in 60 years by the John Oliver Chorale in Boston.  I retouched the score slightly at that time, thus producing the present version.


This was to have been a companion piece Robert Herrick’s ‘To Music’ that was also performed in 1937, won a prize, was published, and has been performed quite often since.


-Elliott Carter, July 1997


Reproduction Rights
This programme note can be reproduced free of charge in concert programmes with a credit to the composer.