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Chelsea Morning

Publisher: LAH Publications

Catalogue Number: LAH 42

Year: 2019

For: SSSSAAAA

Duration: 2:30

While this is scored for eight parts, it really is only six distinct parts with the melody doubled or tripled so that the balance comes through nicely. In fact, this was initially SSSAAA and then I simply took that arrangement and amplified the melody through doubling, so don’t be intimidated by all the doublings!

This arrangement was commissioned by Elektra Women’s Choir, Morna Edmundson, Artistic Director, with a generous donation from the Aulando, Whiteside, and Van Seters families in loving memory of Chelsea Aulando, and premiered on May 4th, 2019 in Vancouver, BC. It makes use of syllables and textures that capture the bright rhythmic impulse of Joni Mitchell’s guitar playing on her 1969 album, Clouds.

Words and music by Joni Mitchell arr. l. hawley

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Words and music by Joni Mitchell arr. l. hawley

Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning, and the first thing that I heard
Was a song outside my window, and the traffic wrote the words
It came a-ringing up like Christmas bells and rapping up like pipes and drums

Oh, won't you stay
We'll put on the day
And we'll wear it 'till the night comes

Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning, and the first thing that I saw
Was the sun through yellow curtains, and a rainbow on the wall
Blue, red, green and gold to welcome you, crimson crystal beads to beckon

Oh, won't you stay
We'll put on the day
There's a sun show every second

Now the curtain opens on a portrait of today
And the streets are paved with passers-by
And pigeons fly
And papers lie
Waiting to blow away

Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning, and the first thing that I knew
There was milk and toast and honey and a bowl of oranges, too
And the sun poured in like butterscotch and stuck to all my senses

Oh, won't you stay
We'll put on the day
And we'll talk in present tenses

When the curtain closes and the rainbow runs away
I will bring you incense owls by night
By candlelight
By jewel-light
If only you will stay
Pretty baby, won't you
Wake up, it's a Chelsea morning