Upon The Heights
Duration:
4'55"
Year Composed:
2019
Instrumentation:
About the Work
<p class="font_9">My composition of "Upon The Heights" by Yone Noguchi was rooted in my time singing in my university's chamber choir and inspired by Jake Runestad's "Come To The Woods". I wanted to pull out the story from the words and use the piano accompaniment to drive that, the sense of adventure and victory, forward between the moments of the serene sound of the a cappella voices.</p>
Text
And victor of life and silence,
I stood upon the Heights; triumphant,
With upturned eyes, I stood,
And smiled unto the sun, and sang
A beautifully sad farewell unto the dying day.
And my thoughts and the eve gathered
Their serpentine mysteries around me,
My thoughts like alien breezes,
The eve like a fragrant legend.
My feeling was that I stood as one
Serenely poised for flight, as a muse
Of golden melody and lofty grace.
Yea, I stood as one scorning the swords
And wanton menace of the cities.
The sun had heavily sunk into the seas beyond,
And left me a tempting sweet and twilight.
The eve with trailing shadows westward
Swept on, and the lengthened shadows of trees
Disappeared: how silently the songs of silence
Steal into my soul! And still I stood
Among the crickets, in the beauteous profundity
Sung by stars; and I saw me
Softly melted into the eve. The moon
Slowly rose: my shadow on the ground
Dreamily began a dreamy roam,
And I upward smiled silent welcome.
Text by:
Yone Noguchi (1875-1947)
