Listening

SATB, piano

A joyful setting of the poem by Amy Lowell, which speaks to the expression of music as that which dwells within us, and which we embody – as well as being the external expression of what is inside. Evocative of the very idea of a chorus – many voices made into one expression, “one music with a thousand cadences”, as the poem says.

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Le Stelle

for SATB a cappella was premiered by the Pacific Chorale on March 30.

Lyrics:

Lo duca e io per quel cammino ascoso
intrammo a ritornar nel chiaro mondo;
e sanza cura aver d’alcun riposo,
salimmo sù, el primo e io secondo,
tanto ch’i’ vidi de le cose belle
che porta ’l ciel, per un pertugio tondo.
E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle.

Canto 34 – Inferno
Dante Alighieri

The guide and I into that hidden road
now entered, to return to the bright world;
and without care of having any rest
we climbed: he first, then I – so far,
through a round aperture I saw appear
some of the beautiful things that heaven bears,
where we came forth, and once more saw the stars.