Let My Song Take Wing – Choral Commission
I am currently working on a choral commission (SAB voicing) with the Independence High School Choirs, here in Glendale, AZ. Their spring concert theme this school year is music derived from literature, and includes some fun music! This has been a really fun project, and if you’d like to be a part of it, please reach out!
I, of course, am a huge fan of poetry, and in particular have been reading a lot of Emily Dickinson over the last year. I am fascinated by her use of natural imagery and her more existential and romantic poems. I also find it amusing that most of her poems can be sung to the tune of the Pokemon theme song (“Because I could not stop for Death” will never sound quite the same, to me!)!
I have chosen a setting of two of her poems related to art and music. Both “If I can stop one heart from breaking” and “I shall keep singing!” have been set by many composers, and so my goal is to find a way to say something new with both texts – something I think I have successfully done. These poems are of particular interest in Dickinson’s oeuvre: they do not follow the typical metric and rhyme schemes she used. And so, I have freely adapted the text, and added my own to the bridge. The full lyrics, as they are currently, are shown below.
Verse 1:
If I can stop one heart from breaking,
then I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
or if I can cool one pain.
Or help one fainting robin
unto his nest again,
then as long as I keep singing,
I shall not sing in vain
Chorus:
I shall keep singing!
I shall keep singing!
I shall keep singing!
Verse 2:
Birds will pass me
on their way to Yellower Climes.
Each, with a Robin’s expectation,
I with my Redbreast and my Rhymes.
When I take my place in summer,
I shall bring a fuller tune.
Vespers are sweeter than Matins,
Morning, the seed of Noon.
Chorus:
I shall keep singing!
I shall keep singing!
I shall keep singing!
Bridge:
So let my song take wing,
beyond the fleeting day,
carried on the quiet air,
where silence melts away!
Chorus:
I shall keep singing!
I shall keep singing!
I shall keep singing!
Verse 1:
If I can stop one heart from breaking,
then I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
or if I can cool one pain.
Or help one fainting robin
unto his nest again,
then as long as I keep singing,
I shall not sing in vain.
Outro (a capella, repeat ad lib. and fade out):
I shall keep singing!
Musically, the song is in the pops/Broadway style. I very much admire such music, though I rarely write it!
The music is rhythmically syncopated, with the dotted quarter, dotted quarter, quarter rhythmic motive heard throughout. Many of the musical lines start off of the beat, as well.
The music is in F major, and stays in the range of an octave and a fourth (C4-F5 in soprano, C4-C5 in alto, and C3-D4 in baritone), and generally stays within an octave. Leaps and the high registers are used sparingly. There is an optional ad libitum soprano solo.
I am also inspired by non-functional harmony and the chord loops heard in many popular genres of music over the last century – particularly those heard in grunge, punk, and pop punk musics. While this music is in none of those styles, the harmonies are derived from those worlds – double suspensions, reverse circle of fifths progressions, etc. For example, an important chord progression in this tune is Fmaj-Ebmaj-Bbmaj-Fmaj.
The bass notes of typical tonal harmonic progressions move counterclockwise around the circle of fifths (for example, a ii-V-I in F moves, with bass notes, G-C-F). The progression I use moves clockwise instead – with bass motion of F-Eb-Bb, before returning to F. Because of the bass voice motion in fourths, theorists call this a double plagal cadence; and, it is very common in popular music of the last century. I make extensive use of it in my music.
The bridge uses a very common progression, known as a line cliche. In a line cliche, one voice of a chord moves down in half steps. The others may or may not move around it. It leads nicely to a V7/V – V7 at the end, setting us up for the finale. It’s not how I typically approach writing such sections (I rather like the Sears-Robuck bridge, or some variant of IV-I-V-I-IV-I-V/V-V), but I like the elegant voice leading here.
Katie Sweeney, the director who is leading this commission, also noted that the beginning of the chorus bears some resemblance to “Free Fallin’” by Tom Petty. I greatly admire his music.
Jason Taurins 