I keep going back to the book Walden by Henry David Thoreau for words and imagery of nature. It\u2019s particularly compelling for me since Walden Pond is a local landmark and part of our community DNA, less than 15 minute drive from home. I walked there with a friend last week just as I was completing my \u201cWalden at Evening\u201d music for horn, percussion and chorus.<\/p>\n
For the first and second movements, I used these words, adapted from the chapter \u201cSounds\u201d, with some additions of my own <\/i>to enhance the rhythms. I used them as sounds and phrases, rather than set as text. The phrase about the \u201cstygian lake\u201d didn’t end up fitting the musical flow though.<\/p>\n adapted from Thoreau\u2019s Walden<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Delicious evening Whip-poor-wills chant evening vespers<\/em> Long after sunset<\/em> bullfrogs troonk on through the night<\/em> by lakeside, solitude<\/em> serene, delicious evening <\/em> I struggled with the form of the piece and I didn’t have an ending. I realized I wanted a real, poetic text that the chorus could sing fully. So I went searching and discovered the next poem. The poem finally turned the work onto the road toward being finished. The music became a multi-movement piece, leading me to create the extended “Capriccio Notturno” as the middle movement instead of being a brief interlude. The third and final movement of \u201cWalden at Evening\u201d sets this poem for chorus with horn and vibraphone obbligato.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>by Henry David Thoreau<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Low-anchored cloud, <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I keep going back to the book Walden by Henry David Thoreau for words and imagery of nature. Walden Pond is a local landmark and part of our community DNA…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[13,16,17],"class_list":["post-13","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-composing","tag-composing","tag-nature-sounds","tag-new-compositions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spindrift.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spindrift.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spindrift.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spindrift.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spindrift.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.spindrift.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":227,"href":"https:\/\/www.spindrift.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions\/227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spindrift.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spindrift.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spindrift.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Delicious Evening <\/b>\u00a0\u00a0<\/h2>\n
\n
cool and cloudy
gentle breezes
ruffling water
fluttering alder
rustling poplar
as bullfrogs usher in the night
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [troonk, troonk]<\/i><\/p>\n
sing like clockwork after sunset<\/em>
from the stump by the door<\/em>
from the ridge of the roof<\/em>
another answers, then another,<\/em>
echoing, echoing, retelling, echoing<\/em><\/p>\n
in the darkness<\/em>
owl mourns aloud<\/em>
tearful music<\/em>
full of melancholy<\/em>
with ominous foreboding<\/em>
then wilder than a laughing loon<\/em><\/p>\n
sturdy spirits of ancient bibblers<\/em>
unrepentant<\/em>
hoarse and solemn<\/em>
mocking at mirth<\/em>
as they try to sing together in their stygian lake<\/em><\/p>\n
lap of rippling water<\/em>
peeping treefrogs<\/em>
trump of bullfrog<\/em>
peent of nighthawk<\/em>
echo of whip-poor-will<\/em>
trump of bullfrog<\/em>
tap of passing rain<\/em>
screech of owl<\/em><\/p>\n
luscious, peaceful night\u00a0 <\/em>
[luscious, luminous, textured, resonant night ]<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
Low-Anchored Cloud [Mist] <\/b><\/h2>\n
\n
Newfoundland air,
Fountain-head and source of rivers,
Dew-cloth, dream-drapery,
And napkin spread by fays;
Drifting meadow of the air,
Where bloom the daisied banks and violets,
And in whose fenny labyrinth
The bittern booms and heron wades;
Spirit of lakes and seas and rivers,
Bear only perfumes and the scent
Of healing herbs to just men’s fields! <\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n