Gabriel Faure, who wrote the music for the original art song, The Cradles, was a successful French composer who died in 1924. He has done something very interesting with his composition. Using the words of the art song as a guide, he has written a piece that musically describes the rocking of the boats out at sea. The rocking of the boats are tied to the rocking of the cradles at home, and written in 6/8 time we feel the rocking. At the beginning of the arrangement Harp 1 plays the melody, while Harp 2 plays a three note arpeggio pattern up and down in each measure. At measure 22 and again at measure 50, Harp 2 plays the melody in octaves for eight measures, while Harp 1 plays accompaniment. Performance time for The Cradles is about three minutes.
The arrangement comes with separate copies for First Harp and Second Harp and an Ensemble Copy showing the two parts together.