Celtic Benediction is a setting of a traditional Irish blessing. This slightly expanded and paraphrased text invokes the blessings of the light, the rain, and the earth, and ends with the well known “may the road rise up to meet you…”. Each of the first three stanzas takes the same core melody, bending and shifting it to fit the text, and smoothly flowing through different key areas. The fourth stanza finally presents that melody in its simplest form, paralleling the most familiar section of the text, before ending with an amen.
This piece was written for the installation of a stained glass window in memory of my grandmother Lydia Walker. A brief quotation from the Lux Aeternam of Fauré’s Requiem (mm. 76-77) serves as a dedication to her: Requiem æternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei.
