Commissioned by Paul Houghtaling, University of Alabama.
Premiered May 4, 2003 on the New York Composers Circle Inaugural Concert, Saint Peter’s Church/Citigroup, New York, NY.
Emily Dickinson has several recurring themes – light, love, death, immortality, bees, the seasons. Through these we discover the range of her experience, and I think of our own as well. A homebody, she traveled little, and is not what we would call worldly. Yet her poems depict an internal world that is at once private and universal. Concrete and subtle, her imagery evokes many layers of meaning.
I’ve always been interested in musical color in its varying qualities & intensities. I began this study with Slants of Light, settings of four Emily Dickinson poems for baritone & piano. I worked with modes, from darkest Locrian to brightest Lydian and looked for the gradations of sound, rhythm, harmony and flow to match the blooming imagery and nuance of Emily Dickinson’s words along their full spectrum of feeling. It was a great teacher for me in the craft of composition.
Also available for bass baritone
Four poems by Emily Dickinson
Not Knowing
Not knowing when the dawn will come
I open every door;
Or has it feathers like a bird,
Or billows like a shore?
There’s a certain Slant of light
There’s a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons –
That oppresses, like the Heft
Of Cathedral Tunes –
Heavenly Hurt, it gives us –
We can find no scar,
But internal difference –
Where the Meanings, are –
None may teach it – Any –
‘Tis the seal, Despair –
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the Air –
When it comes, the Landscape listens –
Shadows – hold their breath –
When it goes, ‘tis like the Distance
On the look of Death –
I heard a Fly buzz – when I died –
I heard a Fly buzz – when I died -The Stillness in the Room
Was like the Stillness in the Air –
Between the Heaves of Storm –
The Eyes around – had wrung them dry –
And Breaths were gathering firm
For that last Onset – when the King
Be witnessed – in the Room –
I willed my Keepsakes – Signed away
What portion of me be
Assignable – and then it was
There interposed a Fly –
With Blue – uncertain – stumbling Buzz –
Between the light – and me –
And then the Windows failed – and then
I could not see to see –
This – is the land – the Sunset washes –
This – is the land – the Sunset washes –
These – are the banks of the Yellow Sea –
Where it rose – or whither it rushes –
These – are the Western Mystery!
Night after Night
Her purple traffic
Strews the landing with Opal Bales –
Merchantmen – poise upon Horizons –
Dip – and vanish like Orioles!
Score Excerpts
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