Crossing the Bar

Welcome to the practice resources for
The Folk Choir’s version of Crossing the Bar. 

Words by Alfred, Lord Tennyson,  arrangement by Stephen Taberner, teaching resources created by Nicole Murray. 

These audio resources will help you to learn your part.

Thanks to Erin Murphy for teaching it and Rebecca Wright for keeping it going, we are singing this beautiful song which is in the repertoire of The Spooky Men's Chorale.

The melody and harmony lines are the same for all verses until the final verse, which will be added down the bottom. The bass part is also suitable for sopranos, all middle voices can choose to sing 'melody' or 'not melody'. Each practice part here is verse one only, and we will work on fitting the other verses to the music live at choir.

Lyrics to verse one.

Sunset and evening star, and one clear call for me

And may there be no moaning of the bar

When I put out to sea.

When I put out to sea, when I put out to sea,

And may there be no moaning of the bar

When I put out to sea.

Melody part 

Here is the melody (with a little touch of the other parts in background):

Click to hear Melody part

Now sing the melody with one of the other parts:

Melody + Bass     Melody + Not-Melody

Here are the two harmonies. You sing the melody part.

Melody minus one. 

Not-Melody part

Here is the Not-Melody:
Click to hear Not-Melody part

Now sing the Not-Melody with one of the other parts:
Not-Melody + Melody   Not-Melody + Bass

Here are the other two parts. You sing the Not-Melody part.
Not-Melody minus one.

Bass/sop part

You can sing this part high or low.

Here is the Bass/sop part:
Click to hear Bass/sop part

Now sing the Bass/sop with one of the other parts:
Bass/sop + Melody          Bass/sop + Not-Melody

Here are the other two parts. You sing the Bass/sop part.
Bass/sop minus one.