Evening Star (2023)
Notes
For chorus & semi-chorus (SATB divisi.)
Composed for the Delaware Choral Scholars
First performance by Delaware Choral Scholars at St. Leonard's Church, Hythe July 13, 2023.
Commissioned by JAM on the Marsh
Text: The Evening Star by Louise Glück
Duration: 5 minutes
Evening Star interprets Louise Glück's evocative poem The Evening Star. Scored for two choruses, the music creates an immersive textural experience, utilising the spacial interplay and antiphony between the two choirs. Reflecting the thematic arc of Glück's poem, the music navigates moments of tranquility and contemplation, building up to expansive, warm moments of climax. Evening Star seeks to capture the essence of the poem's exploration of hope and darkness.
The Evening Star
Tonight, for the first time in many years,
there appeared to me again
a vision of the earth’s splendor:
in the evening sky
the first star seemed
to increase in brilliance
as the earth darkened
until at last it could grow no darker.
And the light, which was the light of death,
seemed to restore to earth
its power to console. There were no
other stars. Only the one
whose name I knew
as in my other life I did her
injury: Venus,
star of the early evening,
to you I dedicate my vision,
since on this blank surface
you have cast enough light
to make my thought
visible again.
Louise Glück
