
Music, When Soft Voices Die
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 “Music when Soft Voices Die” is a reflection on Frank Bridge’s setting of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s text. Throughout the work, the frequent meter and tempo changes combined with the rapidly shifting tonal center signifies both the passage of time & reflection upon a long life. The piece is the third of a five-movement cycle, English Vignettes.
Additional Information
Premiere Information:
Music, When Soft Voices Die was premiered by Sterling Ensemble Los Angeles on February 23rd, 2025, Brandon Chase Di Noto conducting.
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Text:
Music, when soft voices die,
Vibrates in the memory—
Odours, when sweet violets sicken,
Live within the sense they quicken.
Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,
Are heaped for the belovèd's bed;
And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,
Love itself shall slumber on.
- Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)