Edward Elgar, perhaps best known for his orchestral piece ?Enigma Variations,? composed the song cycle Sea Pictures in 1844 originally for contralto and orchestra. Of all the songs in Sea Pictures, ?Where Corals Lie? is said to be the most singable. Biographer Basil Maine wrote that the union of voice and song ?can only be fully realized when a mezzo soprano, who has been taught to imagine that she is a contralto, undertakes to sing this cycle.? What he probably means is that the range of this song (A#-D) is perfect for mezzos, who frequently sing the cycle though it was written for contralto. Each piece in the cycle uses poetry by different poets and all of them are aquatically themed.
The deeps have music soft and low
When winds awake the airy spry,
It lures me, lures me on to go
And see the land where corals lie.
By mount and mead, by lawn and rill,
When night is deep, when noon is high,
That music seeks and finds me still,
And tells me where the corals lie.
Yes, press my eyelids close, 'tis well,
But far the rapid fancies fly
The rolling worlds of wave and shell,
And all the lands where corals lie.
Thy lips are like a sunset's glow,
Thy smile is like a morning sky,
Yet leave me, leave me, let me go
And see the land where corals lie.