News

 

 

It is my pleasure to report that “In Ten Thousand Places: Where Hillis Meets Hopkins” will go live for digital download both on this web site and in major digital music stores on Tuesday, December 2, 2014! In the meantime, Here are some samples of the songs to tide you over. anyone who likes Celtic music or the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, or is interested in hearing new music should know about this album. So, be sure to spread the word! Here are the samples.

 

Track 1. God’s Grandeur. Music by Sara Hillis, lyrics by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889.)

Arranged and performed by Sara Hillis: piano, harp and vocals.

Track 2: As Kingfishers Catch Fire. Music by Sara Hillis, lyrics by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889.)

Arranged and performed by Sara Hillis: piano, harp and vocals.

Track 3. Spring and Fall: To a Young Child. Music by Sara Hillis, lyrics by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889.)

Arranged and performed by Sara Hillis: piano, harp and vocals.

Track 4. No Worst, There is None. Music by Sara Hillis, lyrics by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889.)

Arranged and performed by Sara Hillis: piano and vocals.

Track 5. Heaven-Haven: A Nun Takes the Veil. Music by Sara Hillis, lyrics by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889.)

Arranged and performed by Sara Hillis: piano, harp and vocals.

Track 6. Pied Beauty. Music by Sara Hillis, lyrics by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889.)

Arranged and performed by Sara Hillis: piano, harp and vocals.

Track 7. The Windhover: To Christ our Lord. Music by Sara Hillis, lyrics by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1887.)

Arranged and performed by Sara Hillis: piano, harp and vocals.

 

Enjoy and stay tuned for more!

I’m pleased to announce a special sneak-peak at my forth-coming album titled “In Ten Thousand Places: Where Hillis Meets Hopkins.” available from now through November 1, enjoy a free download of the song “As Kingfishers Catch Fire!” Get it here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14018697/Sara%20Hillis%20Music/In%20Ten%20Thousand%20Places/02%20-%20Sara%20Hillis%20-%20As%20Kingfishers%20Catch%20Fire.mp3

If the song starts playing when you open the above link, simply right-click and select to save the file to your computer. Enjoy and tell your friends!

I’m very excited to announce that a new album, my first to be released in six years, is due to be launched, digitally at least, in December. I’m producing the album myself and while it’s devoted, like my previous effort, to musical settings of famous English poetry, this one is different in that it is dedicated to the work of a single poet. The album will be called “In Ten Thousand Places: Where Hillis Meets Hopkins” and will feature seven musical settings of seven well-known poems by the Victorian Jesuit priest and poet Gerard manley Hopkins (1844-1889.) These include: “God’s Grandeur,” “As Kingfishers Catch Fire,” and “Pied Beauty,” to name only a few.

My first taste of Hopkins’s work was in a first-year English Literature class in University. At the time, I found the poetry both intellectually frustrating and also poetically sublime. Still, he lay untouched by me for several years. Indeed, I never even considered his poetry as suitable to be set to my simple tunes, because I felt it too high and beautiful for me to mar in that way. It was something to be cherished and savoured when I needed spiritual solace, not to be touched by me, lest my ungentle musical hand destroy it. However, a dear friend of mine sent me a couple of Hopkins poems to try my hand at back in 2011, and the rest, as they say, is history. In fact, it is this friend to whom I intend to dedicate the album, as it is due to his encouragement and also his prayers that I have again found my voice and a way to use it to honour a poet whose words have stayed with me and have, at many turns in life, called me home when I was lost.

More details of the album’s release will be forthcoming, so stay tuned to this site for news!

I’m proud to announce the launch of my new and improved web site: sarahillismusic.com! It’s a new day for both myself and my music, so I thought it only fitting that I begin this new incarnation with a new and more user-friendly site. I hope to bring you news in the coming weeks of an exciting new project, but till then, take a look around the new site and hey! Why not do some buying while you’re here?