SATB a cappella
Text:Robert Herrick
Duration: 3 min
Publisher: G. Schirmer
From the pen of rapidly rising young composer Matthew Emery and winner of the 2013 ACDA Raymond W. Brock Memorial Student Composition Contest, this a cappella setting of the Robert Herrick poem is a beautiful addition to serious choral repertoire. With dramatic use of dynamics, a fresh harmonic language and a timeless text, this is a wonderful selection for college and community choirs.
Can be heard on the ACDA album from sound waves recording.
In this world, the isle of dreams,
While we sit by sorrow’s streams,
Tears and terrors are our themes
Reciting:
But when once from hence we fly,
More and more approaching nigh
Unto young eternity,
Uniting:
There no monstrous fancies shall
Out of hell an horror call,
To create, or cause at all,
Affrighting.
There, in calm and cooling sleep
We our eyes shall never steep,
But eternal watch shall keep,
Attending
Pleasures, such as shall pursue
Me immortalized, and you;
And fresh joys, as never too
Have ending.
Themes: life, loss, journey, peace, secular, places, paths,
Dr. Matthew Emery 