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Song for two unaccompanied altos, which I composed in the 1980s while walking through the eerily empty Sunday morning streets of the City of London, with its window boxes the only sign of life and its rooftops towering above me, on my way to St Michael's Cornhill (where I used to sing):

I heard a happy song on a lonely city street;
but it was a song from the past.
It was a song from the days when the street was a meadow path.
It was a song when the flowers in the window boxes
had grass for company.

It was a song when the Cathedral
could be seen above the rooftops

I heard a happy song on a lonely city street;
but it was a song from the future
Song from the days when the streets will dance
with children! Children!
It was a song when the flowers in the window boxes
will learn to sing.
It was a song when the rooftops
won't be seen above the clouds.

I heard a happy song on a lonely city street.
And it is a song of now.
It is a song when the street is trod by worries.
And it is a song of now.
It is a song when the flowers in the window boxes
look out of place.
And it is a song of now
But it is a song I will sing
from the rooftops,
to enchant the clouds.