John Ireland - The Hills. Tim Hill - Photographs

John Ireland's setting of James Kirkup's poem is sung in this recording by the Hallé Choir under Sir Mark Elder. The images are by the Yorkshire based photographer Tim Hill, and were sourced from Pixabay. "How calm, how constant are the hills, How green and white and golden in the summer light. Their lakes, their leaping wells are bright With flower, leaf and rain. And their profounder rivers run from rocks That are the altars of the sun. How calm, how constant are the hills. Our time's dark gale of ice and fire Thunders around them but removes them never. No tempest overthrows their strong humility They are both god and temple And their stones are holy, the earth's enduring thrones."