Looking forward to when choirs are able to sing together in public again, Alexander McCall Smith has written this happy text which I have set to music for mixed-voice choir. If your choir would like to perform it, please email me at web2@tomcunningham.org.uk telling me about your choir. I expect to complete the composition by the end of March and we will make the scores available to download free of charge. Tom Cunningham ======
Incredible
Beasties
Words by Alexander McCall Smith © 2020 Music by Tom Cunningham © 2021
1. The Uncelebrated Animals
Proud of who they are, Recipients of plaudits From the earth- or Couch-bound, Eagle and deer Need no further Honours or adjectives; But unsung, unnoticed, Less likely in every respect, The small beasts of Scotland, The unusual ones, Say: what about us? Why are there no poems, No songs nor compliments To proclaim us, No paintings To portray our modest habitat?
2. The Pygmy Deer
So small he’s never really seen; Only the sharp-eyed catch The fall of his shadow on a leaf, The dapple of his moving In hidden places Where larger deer Disdain to go; Our small deer on tiny feet Move silently, shun The strutting pose, the challenge; Their antlers little branches Of coral, snapped-off twigs, Nothing that would deter Anything but another Of their breed, the pygmy Race, shy companions Of the little creatures Unseen by most, unsung by all.
A stalker in the hills May see a shadow And think it is a leaf Blown by the wind: It is the pygmy deer, The smallest of the deer. It is the pygmy deer, The smallest of the deer.
A stalker on the hills May notice something Hiding under the heather And ignore it; Luckily for me Says the pygmy deer. Luckily for me Says the pygmy deer.
Tiny hooves, eyes Like the smallest Of pearls; graceful In movement; Size is destiny, Says the pygmy deer. Size is destiny, Says the pygmy deer.
3. The High Altitude Seabird
Hatched in the air, in a nest That rests on clouds, The high-altitude seabird Spends
his life aloft, He never lands, but looks down Upon a sea that is always there, Beneath a sky that is his element, A dome of stars by which His endless navigation Is charted and fulfilled.
Never does he come to land; Why would he? His wings, Never folded, barely move, Pivots upon which he Turns and swoops, He sees it all: sea and fish And men and trawlers And lesser gulls, he sees it all, But the wind has him now, The wind, his companion, has taken him away.
4. The Spey Goldfish
The silver salmon leaps proudly, But the great goldfish of the Spey, His orange cousin, less noble In the eyes of anglers But in his own eyes A hero of the first water Has a purpose of his own; Braves the dangers Of the swim upstream To a matrimonial dynastic Destiny. His like May populate fish bowls, May be won at fairs, May have nothing to say But the same tiny bubbles Goldfish have always uttered; But here, for a moment, He is the rider of currents, The conqueror of whirlpools, He is the fish The exaggerating angler Claims he almost caught.
5. The St Andrew Cat
He alone defends the feline name, Shows qualities that cats are never Believed to possess: loyalty based On something other than cupboard love, Dauntless courage, brave persistence In the face of all indifference.
While other cats are selfish, He is generous in his spirit; While other cats are cruel, He releases the mouse; While other cats are greedy, He waits his turn; While other cats are ill-mannered, He utters thanks; While other cats despise, He finds the best in all; For he is with charity, For he is with benevolence, For he walks beside us In all our human effort.
6. The Invisible Lowland Cow
Mistress of camouflage, That concealing art That deceives even The most practised eye, The invisible cow is unseen In every light, in every season.
Endowed by nature with a form That fits without argument Every landscape, she stands Unseen against pasture, Impossible to make out In the shadows of a forest; Black, green, brown – These resources of her palate Blend and adjust To merge with the shapes The land assumes around her.
People have looked in a field And not seen an entire herd Of invisible cows, although Sometimes they hear them, And think their lowing Is the wind in the trees.
But we who are aware of them Will spot the transitory shadow, Will discern in a shrub’s movement A full cow concealed, And say, “Yes, there; there Is an invisible cow, over there.”
7. On the Existence of These Animals
You ask: do they exist These strange animals We have never seen; Nor have you, we suspect, If truth be told?
We say: you may be right, Yet what is, sometimes is Although we think it not to be; What is not, sometimes might Be shown to be at last Because we hope it so. That is all, all we’d say.
Except for this – Brothers and sisters: Our tiny world Of creatures Real and imaginary, Is all we have, Is all we have.
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