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The Long Day Closes

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 Long Day Closes” is a reflection on Arthur Sullivan’s setting of Henry Fothergill Chorley’s text. While I originally planned to set each stanza differently, I realized that the magic of Sullivan’s work is that it is a brilliantly constructed strophic setting. The piece is the fifth of a five-movement cycle, English Vignettes.

Additional Information

Premiere Information:

The Long Day Closes was premiered by exilio as part of their second season on ___ ___, 2025, Ann Chen, director.

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Text:

No star is o'er the lake, Its pale watch keeping, The moon is half awake, Through gray mist creeping, The last red leaves fall round The porch of roses, The clock hath ceased to sound, The long day closes.

 

Sit by the silent hearth In calm endeavour, To count the sounds of mirth, Now dumb for ever. Heed not how hope believes And fate disposes: Shadow is round the eaves, The long day closes;

 

The lighted windows dim Are fading slowly. The fire that was so trim Now quivers lowly. Go to the dreamless bed Where grief reposes, Thy book of toil is read, The long day closes.

- Henry Fothergill Chorley (1808-1872)

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