The Blue Bird
In 2024, I was selected to participate in Choral Arts Initiative’s PREMIERE|Project Festival as a Composition Fellow. The experience culminated in the premiere of my piece, “There is sweet music here.” After sharing that Edward Elgar’s setting was a big inspiration in that piece, a friend who attended the premiere suggested I set more reflections of classic English part songs. My setting of “The Blue Bird” is a reflection on Charles Villiers Stanford’s setting of Mary Elizabeth Coleridge’s text. Throughout the piece the sustained long note passages signify the stillness of the lake, while the moving eighth-note passages signify the ripples in the lake as the blue bird flies over closely. The piece is the fourth of a five-movement cycle, English Vignettes.
Additional Information
Premiere Information:
XYZ
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Text:
The lake lay blue below the hill.
O'er it, as I looked, there flew
Across the waters, cold and still,
A bird whose wings were palest blue.
The sky above was blue at last,
The sky beneath me blue in blue.
A moment, ere the bird had passed,
It caught his image as he flew.
- Mary Elizabeth Coleridge (1861-1902)