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.
Listening
‘T is you that are the music, not your song.
The song is but a door which, opening wide,
Lets forth the pent-up melody inside,
Your spirit’s harmony, which clear and strong
Sings but of you. Throughout your whole life long
Your songs, your thoughts, your doings, each divide
This perfect beauty; waves within a tide,
Or single notes amid a glorious throng.
The song of earth has many different chords;
Ocean has many moods and many tones
Yet always ocean. In the damp Spring woods
The painted trillium smiles, while crisp pine cones
Autumn alone can ripen. So is this
One music with a thousand cadences.
Amy Lowell