The Sea of Sunset
for female voice and ensemble
| Duration: | 8 minutes | |
| Instrumentation: | Alto / Mezzo-Soprano, Tenor Trombone, Piano and Double Bass |
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Eligible for 15% music student discount |
Program notes:
The poems of Emily Dickinson are very unique work of art. Most of her poems are full with detailed descriptions, transferring the poems to a medium of picture, carefully painted and calculated. Yet, it is quiet amazing that these poems came from the hand of a woman who lived secluded life, in her hometown Amherst, Massachusetts. A clue may be finds in one of Dickinson’s saying: “To shut our eyes is to travel.”
As I approached Dickinson’s poems (which are close to 2000), I found that most of them, even the short ones, are built into a large space. Each poem needs its development time and cannot be rushed or squeezed to a regular song form. In “The Sea of Sunset,” I have let the words, the nature description, and the lazy mood of the poem take me to the picture medium. Adding the murmur of the sea, and the whisper of the wind, I tried to get as close as possible to the picture I saw through the poem.
| Year composed: | 1999 |
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| Text by:: | Emiliy Dickinson (USA) |
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| Language: | English | |
| Commissioned By: | The Jerusalem Academy of Music | |
| Written for: | Ayelet Carmon | |
| Premiere performance: | 31 March, 1998 Jerusalem, Israel Ayelet Carmon, mezzo-soprano Mitchell Ross, trombone Michael Klinghoffer, Double Bass Allan Sterenfeld, piano |
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| Clip 1 |
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| Text: | This – is the land – the Sunset washes - These – are the Banks of the Yellow Sea - Where it rose – or whither it rushes - These – are the Western Mystery! Night after Night Her purple traffic Strews the landing with Opal Bales - Merchantmen – poise upon Horizons - Dip – and vanish like Orioles |
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