Lapwood, Anna - An Irish Blessing (mixed voices)

Setting the familiar traditional Irish text, ‘May the road rise up to meet you’, An Irish Blessing was written in 2024 as a parting gift for a Pembroke College, Cambridge organ scholar, Andreana Chan, who was graduating that year. The piece is also fitting as Anna Lapwood herself departed the college in 2025, and she dedicates this work to all the singers and organists she worked with over her nine years at Pembroke. With a beautifully crafted melody and supportive, flowing accompaniment for either piano or harp, the voices explore a variety of colours reflecting the poignant text. The vocal lines are written mostly in four parts, with occasional divisi, but the mostly homophonic texture makes the work accessible to developing voices and more advanced mixed-voice choirs alike. Also available for two-part upper voices (SS, with some additional divisi).