Evening Star (2023)
Notes
For Choir (SATB) & Semi-Chorus a cappella
First performance 13th July 2023, St. Leonard's Church, Hythe
Duration: 5 minutes
Text: The Evening Star by Louise Glück
Commissioned by JAM on the Marsh, for the University of Delaware Chorale
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.