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The poem Mirror of Diana by Victorian-era poet Mathilde Blind has a very evocative opening and closing stanza. These pieces both came out of those lines, but they are very different in character. They can be performed together or separately.
- float into the quiet skies: Rising lines soar upward, arpeggios and tremolos cascade up and down with a serene ending. Moderately challenging. Although in 4/4 it should be played with a cadenza-like freedom. Sparing percussion highlights the flute's dramatic moments: high metal wind chimes, triangle, maraca. Duration approx. 4'45"
- melt into the flux: More of an equal partnership than "float...", the staccato notes of the flute and temple blocks answer each other and color each other's sound. Much more rhythmically driven. Percussion is 5 temple blocks and 3 roto toms. Duration approx. 4'
The Mirror of Diana
By Mathilde Blind (1841-1896)
from Birds of Passage (1895):
Songs of the Occident (excerpts)
She floats into the quiet skies,
Where, in the circle of hills,
Her immemorial mirror fills
With light, as of a Virgin's eyes
When, love a-tremble in their blue,
They glow twin violets dipped in dew.
...
Haunting the deep reflective mind,
You may surprise its perfect Sphere
Glassed like the Moon within her mere,
Who at a puff of alien wind
Melts in innumerable rings,
Elusive in the flux of things.
Part of the Poetry-Inspired Solos & Duos project
Read the whole poem at http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/blind03.html
Catalog # 82003, 82003pdf
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