Romance (sketch, 2011)
for SSA chorus
These first couple minutes of Romance were written during my final semester at Luther College. Honestly, I decided on composition a bit late in my college career, so it wasn't until I was a senior that I started to dabble in writing for chorus. For my first sketch I decided on a text by one of my favorite authors, Edgar Allan Poe:
Romance, who loves to nod and sing,
With drowsy head and folded wing,
Among the green leaves as they shake
Far down within some shadowy lake,
To me a painted paroquet
Hath been -- a most familiar bird --
Taught me my alphabet to say --
To lisp my very earliest word
While in the wild wood I did lie,
A child -- with a most knowing eye.
Of late, eternal Condor years
So shake the very Heaven on high
With tumult as they thunder by,
I have no time for idle cares
Through gazing on the unquiet sky.
And when an hour with calmer wings
Its down upon my spirit flings --
That little time with lyre and rhyme
To while away -- forbidden things!
My heart would feel to be a crime
Unless it trembled with the strings.
Poe has been an inspiration for me ever since I was a kid. One day I found an old book of his poems in our house, sitting on our stair steps waiting to be tossed. To this day I have no idea where it came from. I picked it up and discovered "The Raven," and that pretty much did it for me. I rescued the book (though I'm not sure where it is now...) and kept reading his poems, until I eventually got my hands on a copy of his complete tales and poems. It's my brother's...he'll probably want that back some day.
This poem is a beautiful little gem. I think it stands out from some of his other, lengthier poems in both diction and tone. This has a sweetness and an airiness to it, and it doesn't seem as dark as his other works. It's simple and quite lovely.
To capture that airy, sweet, tender quality, I drew upon the forces of Luther College's Collegiate Chorale -- the female half, specifically. I didn't go all out with dynamics or rhythm, keeping the setting gentle and melodic. And the choir brought out the beauty in a fantastic way.
Unfortunately, I only made it through the first stanza when setting this text. I would absolutely love to finish it and hear it performed. Until then, it'll be waiting here in its simple beauty.
Romance, who loves to nod and sing,
With drowsy head and folded wing,
Among the green leaves as they shake
Far down within some shadowy lake,
To me a painted paroquet
Hath been -- a most familiar bird --
Taught me my alphabet to say --
To lisp my very earliest word
While in the wild wood I did lie,
A child -- with a most knowing eye.
Of late, eternal Condor years
So shake the very Heaven on high
With tumult as they thunder by,
I have no time for idle cares
Through gazing on the unquiet sky.
And when an hour with calmer wings
Its down upon my spirit flings --
That little time with lyre and rhyme
To while away -- forbidden things!
My heart would feel to be a crime
Unless it trembled with the strings.
Poe has been an inspiration for me ever since I was a kid. One day I found an old book of his poems in our house, sitting on our stair steps waiting to be tossed. To this day I have no idea where it came from. I picked it up and discovered "The Raven," and that pretty much did it for me. I rescued the book (though I'm not sure where it is now...) and kept reading his poems, until I eventually got my hands on a copy of his complete tales and poems. It's my brother's...he'll probably want that back some day.
This poem is a beautiful little gem. I think it stands out from some of his other, lengthier poems in both diction and tone. This has a sweetness and an airiness to it, and it doesn't seem as dark as his other works. It's simple and quite lovely.
To capture that airy, sweet, tender quality, I drew upon the forces of Luther College's Collegiate Chorale -- the female half, specifically. I didn't go all out with dynamics or rhythm, keeping the setting gentle and melodic. And the choir brought out the beauty in a fantastic way.
Unfortunately, I only made it through the first stanza when setting this text. I would absolutely love to finish it and hear it performed. Until then, it'll be waiting here in its simple beauty.
