For SSA Chorus, 4′
Words by Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ
Recording excerpt:
Regis University Concert Choir: SSA singers, directed by G. Cannady
My Three Wind Songs set three poems by the Victorian English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889). Hopkins, a Jesuit priest, was enchanted by the natural world and wrote, in addition to these poems on the wind, on subjects such as the stars, light, the seasons, and the sea. When Gregg Cannady invited me to write a piece for women’s choir, I chose these poems because they suggest the musical qualities of movement, sensuality, and playfulness; and also because massed voices are a powerful metaphor for the wind. The poems are filled with vivid Romantic imagery, from “dusk and silver” blades of wheat to wind-tossed trees, “sapphire pools…smit with white,” the “swept azure” of the sky, and the “glassy light” of Cupid’s wings. In writing the music, I lost myself in the gusty landscape of the words, and I hope that listeners will find themselves similarly swept away.
-LKN
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