Starlight

SATB, piano | Duration c. 4'30"

Starlight was commissioned by Northwest Choral Society of Illinois and is dedicated to all its members past and present, with special thanks to Collaborative Pianist Lori Lyn Mackie and former artistic director Alan Wellman. The piece is a setting of the poem Starlight by John Collings Squire, focusing on the personal discovery of a new sense of hope and understanding in the universe through the observation of the stars.

Last night I lay in an open field
And looked at the stars with lips sealed;
No noise moved the windless air,
And I looked at the stars with steady stare.

There were some that glittered and some that shone
With a soft and equal glow, and one
That queened it over the sprinkled round,
Swaying the host with silent sound.

"Calm things," I thought, "in your cavern blue,
I will learn and hold and master you;
I will yoke and scorn you as I can,
For the pride of my heart is the pride of a man."

Grass to my cheek in the dewy field,
I lay quite still with lips sealed,
And the pride of a man and his rigid gaze
Stalked like swords on heaven's ways.

But through a sudden gate there stole
The Universe and spread in my soul;
Quick went my breath and quick my heart,
And I looked at the stars with lips apart.

- John Collings Squire