There is sweet music here

In 2020, I discovered Edward Elgar’s setting of Tennyson’s poem. In the Fall of 2022, I relocated to Santa Barbara for a work opportunity which quickly became one of the most painful periods of my life. At every turn, it seemed that no one in the organization was willing to either help or take the choral art seriously, which was the reason I was recruited from the start. When next to nothing was providing solace or comfort, even the music I was making, Tennyson’s poem reminded me that music brings light into the darkest of days. I rhythmically set this poem in one afternoon, and the notes quickly followed. Regardless of the difficulties life brings, nothing can quell the beauty of music. The piece is the first of a five-movement cycle, English Vignettes.