Look down, fair moon
Instrumentation: SATB chorus Completed: February, 2008 Commissioned by and Dedicated to: The Boston Choral Ensemble, Miguel Felipe, music director Duration: 6 minutes Text: "Reconciliation" and "Look down, fair moon" by Walt Whitman (1819-1892) Premiered: May 31, 2008 by the Boston Choral Ensemble, Miguel Felipe, music director
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Commissioned as a result of first prize in the 2007 Boston Choral Ensemble Commission CompetitionProgram Note
War and Peace are central motives in many of Walt Whitman’s poems, a fact that can certainly be traced to his first-hand experiences as a volunteer nurse in an army hospital during the American Civil War. Whitman was profoundly affected by the huge loss of life unfolding before him, an unavoidable aftermath of battle. It is the quiet period after the fighting that seems to have inspired the calm imagery of these two poems. In Reconciliation, Northern and Southern soldiers are brought together in death, which heals all of mankind‘s quarrels. In Look down, fair moon, Whitman calls to the heavens to cleanse the scenes of horror left in the war’s wake. Since the two poems share many images and symbols, I have combined them in a single-movement work for chorus. The still, white faces of the dead soldiers in the first poem are transformed into the still, calm white face of the moon in the second. We mourn the earthly grave of these young men while looking far above the silent battlefield (and far beyond the Civil War) for a higher consolation.
This piece is dedicated to Miguel Felipe and the Boston Chorale.
Performances (6)
| May 30, 2008, 8:00 pm (premiere) | The Boston Choral Ensemble, Miguel Felipe, music director First Church, Cambridge, MA |
| June 1, 2008, 2:00 pm | The Boston Choral Ensemble, Miguel Felipe, music director Church of St. John the Evangelist, Boston, MA |
| October 22, 2009, 7:30 pm | Apeiron, Daniel Pickens-Jones, conductor Chapel of Third Presbyterian Church, Rochester, NY |
| October 24, 2009, 7:30 pm | Apeiron, Daniel Pickens-Jones, conductor Interfaith Chapel at the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY |
| April 16, 2010, 8:00 pm | Richmond Symphony Chorus, Erin Freeman, conductor Second Baptist Church, Richmond, VA |
| April 18, 2010, 8:00 pm | Richmond Symphony Chorus, Erin Freeman, conductor Grace Baptist Church, Richmond, VA |