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In The Wide Awe And Wisdom Of The Night - by Paul Halley |
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Catalogue Number - PEL2097 SATB Voicing/Instrumentation - SATB Choir with Organ accompaniment Level of Difficulty - Moderate (Octotonic scale Uses/Season - Concert, Festival, Service Perusal score pdf can be viewed while listening simultaneously to audio track below. |
Duration - 8:30 mins Pages Music - 15 pages music - 24 page booklet |
Format - SATB/organ choral octavo Copyright Year - 2017  SATB perusal - pages 1-3 of 15 |
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Description/Remarks PEL2097 "In The Wide Awe And Wisdom Of The Night" Composer’s Notes for “In The Wide Awe And Wisdom Of The Night” On reading Roberts’ sonnet, the phrase “obedient unto laws/That utter the eternal thought of Him” stuck with me. I can only assume it was those ‘laws’ that sent me into the octatonic realm. The octave of the sonnet is set to music that adheres rigorously to this octatonic scale. The opening three lines of the sestet, “I compassed time…” still use the octatonic scale but in a more ‘romantic’ way. It was not until the fourth line of the sestet (the twelfth line of the poem) that I allowed myself the full use of all twelve tones – “At last I came before Him face to face”. For each iteration of this phrase the choir sings, in unison, the four tones ‘missing’ from the octatonic scale – F, G# (or Ab), B, and D. This section ends emphasizing the diminished chord made up of these four notes. The piece concludes with the repetition of the opening line “In the wide awe and wisdom of the night” with its recurring octatonic theme sung by the choir, but this time accompanied on the organ by all the tonal means available. After the choir fades out the organ returns to the strict octatonic patterns with which the piece began. The night sky has not changed while the poet’s soul has been transformed. __________________________________________________ Commissioned by Cardinal Carter Academy for the Arts, Toronto, to commemorate the school's 25th anniversary. __________________________________________________ Remarkably coincidental with the completion of this commission by Paul Halley, NASA announced a breakthrough discovery. NASA announced the discovery of the most Earth-sized planets found in the habitable zone of a single star, called TRAPPIST-1. This system of seven rocky worlds–all of them with the potential for water on their surface–is an exciting discovery in the search for life on other worlds. There is the possibility that future study of this unique planetary system could reveal conditions suitable for life.  This artist's concept shows what the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system may look like, based on available data about the planets' diameters, masses and distances from the host star, as of February 2018. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech |
Recording In The Wide Awe And Wisdom PEL1006 CD  YouTube - 8:31 In The Wide Awe and Wisdom Of The Night Words: Charles G.D. Roberts Music: P. Halley |
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Texts In The Wide Awe And Wisdom Of The Night
In the wide awe and wisdom of the night
And that stupendous orbit, round whose rim
Till, weighing laws which these but blindly heed,
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