Title: Sonnet to the Moon
Year Completed: 2019
Duration: 10 mins
Instrumentation: SATB chorus, a cappella and solo flute
Credits: Commissioned for the Halifax Camerata Singers, Artistic Director Jeff Joudrey, with funding by Arts Nova Scotia. Text by Helen Maria Williams. Dedicated to my wife, Pauline.
Premiere: Sat. Nov. 9, 2019 — Halifax Camerata Singers, St. Andrew’s United Church, 6036 Coburg Road, Halifax, NS
Purchase/Rent: This work is exclusive to the Halifax Camerata Singers until further notice.
A work for SATB chorus, a cappella and solo flute based on the poem Sonnet to the Moon by the British poet Helen Maria Williams (1759-1827):
The glitt'ring colours of the day are fled;
Come, melancholy orb! that dwell'st with night,
Come! and o'er earth thy wand'ring lustre shed,
Thy deepest shadow, and thy softest light;
To me congenial is the gloomy grove,
When with faint light the sloping uplands shine;
That gloom, those pensive rays alike I love,
Whose sadness seems in sympathy with mine!
But most for this, pale orb! thy beams are dear,
For this, benignant orb! I hail thee most:
That while I pour the unavailing tear,
And mourn that hope to me in youth is lost,
Thy light can visionary thoughts impart,
And lead the Muse to soothe a suff'ring heart.
Source: Poems on various subjects: with introductory remarks on the present state of science and literature in France. London: G. and W. B. Whittaker, 1823, p. 206.
Links: Halifax Camerata Singers
Purchase the EP: https://leaf-music.ca/product/lm2007/
Year Completed: 2019
Duration: 10 mins
Instrumentation: SATB chorus, a cappella and solo flute
Credits: Commissioned for the Halifax Camerata Singers, Artistic Director Jeff Joudrey, with funding by Arts Nova Scotia. Text by Helen Maria Williams. Dedicated to my wife, Pauline.
Premiere: Sat. Nov. 9, 2019 — Halifax Camerata Singers, St. Andrew’s United Church, 6036 Coburg Road, Halifax, NS
Purchase/Rent: This work is exclusive to the Halifax Camerata Singers until further notice.
A work for SATB chorus, a cappella and solo flute based on the poem Sonnet to the Moon by the British poet Helen Maria Williams (1759-1827):
The glitt'ring colours of the day are fled;
Come, melancholy orb! that dwell'st with night,
Come! and o'er earth thy wand'ring lustre shed,
Thy deepest shadow, and thy softest light;
To me congenial is the gloomy grove,
When with faint light the sloping uplands shine;
That gloom, those pensive rays alike I love,
Whose sadness seems in sympathy with mine!
But most for this, pale orb! thy beams are dear,
For this, benignant orb! I hail thee most:
That while I pour the unavailing tear,
And mourn that hope to me in youth is lost,
Thy light can visionary thoughts impart,
And lead the Muse to soothe a suff'ring heart.
Source: Poems on various subjects: with introductory remarks on the present state of science and literature in France. London: G. and W. B. Whittaker, 1823, p. 206.
Links: Halifax Camerata Singers
Purchase the EP: https://leaf-music.ca/product/lm2007/
