The Dream I Knew

SATB divisi | Duration c. 4'30"

The Dream I Knew was composed following my second year as a guest composer at the Choral Institute at Oxford. The text is adapted from the poem “To Ireland in the Coming Times” by W. B. Yeats, and I feel this selection is a summation of how the experiences I have shared with those in the world of choral music have shaped my own being. The Dream I Knew is essentially a love song from me as a composer to the community that performs and consumes my music; an assurance that while still I may I will continue to write this music as best I can, for them.

The Dream I Knew is featured on Songs of the Questioner, the first full-length CD from GRAMMY-nominated conductor James Jordan and his Philadelphia-based professional choir The Same Stream. The CD features music by Thomas LaVoy, Paul Mealor, Dan Forrest and Peter Relph, and is available from iTunes, Spotify and Amazon, as well as directly from the choir’s website.

While still I may, I write for you
The love I lived, the dream I knew.
From our birthday, until we die,
Is but the winking of an eye;
And we, our singing and our love,
What measurer Time has lit above,
And all benighted things that go
About my table to and fro,
Are passing on to where may be,
In truth's consuming ecstasy,
No place for love and dream at all;
For God goes by with white footfall.
I cast my heart into my rhymes,
That you, in the dim coming times,
May know how my heart went with them.

While still I may, I write for you
The love I lived, the dream I knew. 

 - from "To Ireland in the Coming Times," W.B. Yeats