Pied Beauty is a short, reverent poem by English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1898). Throughout the first half of this choral setting, the music combines a marcato, dappled polyphony with mixolydian/triadic harmony (a nod to the poet’s era and homeland); then, in the second half, the music’s texture mellows into a smooth homophony with extended harmonies for increased color and expression.