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A Brighter Garden - by Paul Halley
Publication Details
Catalogue Number -
PEL2064 SSA
Voicing/Instrumentation -
SSA choir and piano and French Horn with optional organ or strings
Level of Difficulty - Moderate Uses/Season - Festival, Concert
Duration -
6:45 mins
Pages Music -
15 pages - 20 page booklet
Format -
SSA/piano choral octavo
Copyright Year - 2009
SSA version - pgs
1-3 of 15
Description/Remarks
PEL2064 "A Brighter Garden".
With texts from both Emily Dickinson's 'There Is
Another Sky' and Isaac Watts' 'We Are A Garden Walled Around',
Halley creates a shimmering paradise of interweaving
sound that evokes an innocent
yearning for the radiance and serenity of the cloistered Garden. This
is a vibrant and youthfully fresh choral setting for treble voices with
piano accompaniment clear and bell-like below the soaring and
intertwining melodies. French horn lends atmosphere and breadth to the
spatial and emotional realms of this beautiful, truly 'brighter garden'.
A paradise we would all wish to inhabit.
Commissioned by Greg and Lori Plater in memory of
Roy Plater for the Calgary Girls Choir, Elaine Quilichini, Director.
__________________________________________________
Composer's Notes: When considering Emily Dickinson’s poem “There Is Another Sky” for this
commission, I came upon a revealing piece of literary criticism
which highlighted the connection between Dickinson’s metric devices and
the hymnody of Isaac Watts.
“Fatefully for American poetry, one church
that thoroughly embraced Watts was the First Church in Amherst,
Massachusetts, where Emily Dickinson and her family worshiped. There, as
a child, the young poet was exposed to Samuel Worcesterʹs edition of Wattsʹ hymns, The Psalms and Spiritual Songs. Emily Dickinson made this same hymn
meter--and the emotionally spiritual content of Wattsʹ biblical adaptations--the foundation of
her poetic. A renegade in American literature,
Dickinson rejected the iambic pentameter line,
which had been the dominant poetic mode for hundreds of years, in favor
of the hymn meter, which better suited the revolutionary nature of her
expression.”
This led me to a search through the
considerable ouptut of Isaac Watts for a poem that
spoke about the garden. I was fortunate in discovering his hymn text
based on verse four of the sixteenth chapter of Song of Songs – “We are a
garden walled around”. The metaphor of the walled garden from which, via
Arabic, we derive the word “paradise”, seemed singularly apt for a piece
centered on a poem by Emily Dickinson. The line “A little spot enclosed
by grace” seemed a very succinct way of describing Dickinson’s entire
life. I felt the ecstatic quality of Watts’ language brought out the
underlying sensuality of Dickinson’s poem, and I felt sure she wouldn’t
have minded the juxtaposition, since the sensibility of so much of
Watts’ work would have felt very familiar to her. -
Paul Halley -
February 25th 2009
Recorded for the
Pelagos double CD set
In The
Wide Awe And Wisdom
PEL1006 CD
available in
compact disc or digital format
Youtube - Time 6:47
A Brighter Garden Words: Isaac Watts, Emily Dickinson Music: P. Halley
Order No.
Item Description
Price
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CHORAL SCORES
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PEL2064 SSA-PDF
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Choral
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INSTRUMENTAL PARTS, FULL SCORES, AND ORCHESTRATIONS
PEL2064
FS/Parts
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with piano and keyboard/organ and
Instrumental Part for French Horn.
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PEL2064 FS/Orch
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and Instrumental Parts for French Horn and Strings (Violin
I&II, Viola, Cello I&II, Bass)
THIS ITEM ONLY AVAILABLE WITH PURCHASE OF CHORAL SCORE
DOWNLOAD OR CUSTOM PRINT ORDER MINIMUM. IF YOU DO NOT
OBSERVE THIS POLICY, WE WILL NOT SEND YOU THE LICENSE AND
DOWNLOAD FOR FULL SCORE AND PARTS. (If you have previously
purchased choral scores, please explain how, where, and when
in the Comments section at check-out.)
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Texts
We are a garden walled around, Chosen and
made peculiar ground; A little
spot enclosed by grace Out of
the world’s wide wilderness. _____
Awake, O, heav’nly wind!
and come, Blow on this garden
of perfume; Spirit divine!
descend and breathe A gracious
gale on plants beneath.
from ‘We Are A Garden Walled Around’ by Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
There is another sky, Ever serene and fair, And there is another sunshine, Though it be darkness there; Never mind faded forests, Austin, Never mind silent fields— Here is a little forest, Whose leaf is ever green; Here is a brighter garden, Where not a frost has been; In its unfading flowers I hear the bright bee hum: Prithee, my brother, Into my garden come!
‘There Is Another Sky’ by Emily Dickinson (1830-86)
