Sunset

S(A) chorus and piano | Duration c. 3'

Hewitt Hill Music

Sunset was commissioned by the choirs of Blair Academy (Ryan Manni, conductor) and dedicated to the Class of 2020 as a part of the Dreamsongs commissioning project. Each ensemble involved in this project had the opportunity to choose a text from Poems by a Little Girl by Hilda Conkling to serve as the basis for a commissioned composition for upper voices. Hilda was a child poet active in the early 20th century who wrote the vast majority of her poems between the ages of four and nine. Her mother would take dictation of Hilda’s spoken poems and allow her to make corrections before they were published – a remarkable process that captured the fanciful creative spirit of a little girl. 

Performance note: the alto part in Sunset is optional.

Once upon a time at evening-light
A little girl was sad.
There was a color in the sky,
A color she knew in her dreamful heart
And wanted to keep.
She held out her arms
Long, long,
And saw it flow away on the wind.
When it was gone
She did not love the moonlight
Or care for the stars.
She had seen the rose in the sky.

Sometimes I am sad
Because I have a thought
Of this little girl.
                               – Hilda Conkling