Duration: 5’
Program Note:
Aurora
Fly away, sleep;
Fly away, dreams,
Fly with the prayers upon myrrh’s fragrant wings.
Rise from the haze
To the dawn’s sacred light
From unknowable yearning, inscrutable night.
Awake to the bugle,
That evanescent strain
Disclosing the tomb where all sorrows lay slain,
Where legions of angels shall cease their restraint
And cull forth the hope that lies faint.
Hasten the morning
That scorches the frost,
Emblazons the gaze, illumines the lost;
Hasten the sun
In its rise to consume
Each atom of darkness, each quantum of gloom
’Til the Ancient remembers,
‘cross the endless expanse,
the embers of history no more glow askance,
but shine in this glorious hour of chance
from pyre, to ashes, to sweet renascence.
I wrote this poem in the spring of 2013, just a few months after I moved from Wisconsin to Texas. That spring—in fact that entire year—had been one of momentous transitions, as I left a faculty position at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and took a new one at the University of Texas at San Antonio, effectively trading the familiar rivers, streams, and bluffs of the Chippewa Valley for the thirsty, mesquite and oak groves of the Texas Hill Country. In the past remained friendships forged through the victories and trials of shared experience; in the future lay unknowable, unrealized promises. In this spirit I contemplated the nexus of endings and beginnings; retrospectives and prospectives. The idea of death and resurrection or renewal provided a poignantly apt poetic vehicle for my thoughts. Thus was born the poem, Aurora. In the protracted wake of a global pandemic, the hope for new beginnings assumes even greater urgency.
Originally for SATB unaccompanied choir, the piece has been re-composed into its present state, accounting for the sonic possibilities of wind and percussion.
This piece will stand as the central movement of my forthcoming first symphony for winds.
Concert Premiere: March 10th by Ron Ellis and the UTSA Wind Ensemble