Beth Anderson

Dream Song

Year: 2009

Duration (in minutes): 3 minutes 45 seconds

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Category: choral

Instruments: alto, bass voice, soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone


Description: SSAATB; commissioned by Acapellago;
I chose Walter de la Mare ‘s poem because of its gentle, magical nature and its description of the world in terms of light, as if it were the first day of creation. The piece begins and ends in a rocking lullaby alternating between D and C. Owls call and lions roar. Near the end, the words and some of the music are cut into small pieces and inserted among other small pieces. The bass section has the last solo, as a father might who is reading this ‘bedtime story’. One person from each section whispers the last words as elves might in the dark after the story is complete and the light is extinguished
A bit more technical description if it is wanted:
The piece begins gently alternating between “sunlight” (in d-minor) and “moonlight” (on the major flat-seven C chord as the dominant substitute). The voices enter group by group. There is a bit of word painting on the “owl calling”. “In a wood of oak and May” is in the playful key of C-major. The words ‘no light’ are set to a great pile of fourths. The lions begin in F-major and roars on a B-diminished-minor-seventh. Roar! That kind of chord continues thru their “wrath” and their being “far away”. When the “elf-light” appears the music returns to the gentle d-minor lullaby of the beginning.
The small face that appears is in d-minor but the smile is a major-minor seventh on B-flat and then a minor-minor seventh on A. (b-flat, d,f,a=smiling—to a,c,e,g=minor-minor seventh).
Near the end, the words and some of the music are cut into small pieces and inserted among other small pieces. The bass section has the last solo, as a father might who is reading this ‘bedtime story’. One person from each section whispers the last words as elves might in the dark after the story is complete and the light is extinguished
--
the poem:
Dream-song
by Walter de la Mare (1873-1956) , from Peacock Pie: A Book of Rhymes, published 1913.
Sunlight, moonlight,
Twilight, starlight --
Gloaming at the close of day,
And an owl calling,
Cool dews falling
In a wood of oak and may.
Lantern-light, taper-light,
Torchlight, no-light:
Darkness at the shut of day,
And lions roaring,
Their wrath pouring
In wild waste places far away.
Elf-light, bat-light,
Touchwood-light and toad-light,
And the sea a shimmering gloom of grey,
And a small face smiling
In a dream's beguiling
In a world of wonders far away.

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