My Spirit Sang All Day
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 “My Spirit Sang All Day” is a reflection on Gerald Finzi’s setting of Robert Bridges’ text. Throughout the work, the shifting between 4/4 & 7/8 signifies the joy of new love, while the slower passages convey the deep and reflective commitment to love. The piece is the first of a five-movement cycle, English Vignettes, Set 2.
Additional Information
Premiere Information:
My Spirit Sang All Day was premiered by Choral Arts Initiative as part of their PREMIERE|Project Festival on June 28th, 2024, with Ali Sandweiss Hodges conducting.
Text:
My spirit sang all day
O my joy.
Nothing my tongue could say,
Only My joy!
My heart an echo caught
O my joy
And spake,
Tell me thy thought,
Hide not thy joy.
My eyes gan peer around,
O my joy
What beauty hast thou found?
Shew us thy joy.
My jealous ears grew whist;
O my joy
Music from heaven is't,
Sent for our joy?
She also came and heard;
O my joy,
What, said she, is this word?
What is thy joy?
And I replied,
O see, O my joy,
'Tis thee, I cried, 'tis thee:
Thou art my joy.
- Robert Seymour Bridges (1844-1930)