Leaves
Composed by Ēriks Ešenvalds
(Set to the poem by Sara Teasdale)
Performed on: 20 August 2023
The Vocal Consort Presents: WHA-DA-YA-GET?
Born in 1977 in Latvia, Ēriks Ešenvalds is an internationally-acclaimed composer and conductor who has written many renowned choral compositions, including Stars, Northern Lights, and Only in Sleep. Leaves is part of his Northern Lights album, which contains choral pieces inspired by the natural phenomena of the aurora borealis and is based on texts by different poets. The text was written by Sara Teasdale in October 1915 and describes the transient nature of autumn leaves. Despite the melancholy of the change of seasons which signifies the “faiths (that) have forsaken me”, Teasdale shows that there is still joy and wonder to be found in the new things around us, the “stars above, and earth below”.
One by one, like leaves from a tree
All my faiths have forsaken me;
But the stars above my head
Burn in white and delicate red,
And beneath my feet the earth
Brings the sturdy grass to birth.
I who was content to be
But a silken-singing tree,
But a rustle of delight
In the wistful heart of night-
I have lost the leaves that knew
Touch of rain and weight of dew.
Blinded by a leafy crown
I looked neither up nor down-
But the little leaves that die
Have left me room to see the sky;
Now for the first time I know
Stars above and earth below.
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9 сен 2024
