Nocturne

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Free Music Notes for Nocturne

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Adolphus Hailstork (b. 1941) is Professor of Music and Composer-in-Residence at Norfolk State University in Virginia. In “Nocturne,” he calls upon a lover to contemplate and appreciate the simple beauties of the night. The text is at first carried by the soprano, while the other parts provide an atmospheric background. Following a middle section in which all parts work over the poem, the conclusion returns to the atmosphere of the beginning. “The Cloths of Heaven” sets with rich, romantic music a contemplative poem by William Butler Yeats.

Samuel Barber (1910-1981), a recipient of two Pulitzer Prizes and numerous other awards, finished “To Be Sung on the Water” on December 12, 1968. An unusual love song, it was apparently written for no other reason than his own desire to do so. The water imagery of the poem is reflected in the repeated three-note motives in the men's voices that gently underlie the composition like placid waves under a boat, ever repeating the words “beautiful, my delight.” Barber considered adding “To Be Sung on the Water” to his opera Antony and Cleopatra but never did so. It was one of the works performed at his memorial service at St. Bartholomew's Church, New York. Eric Whitacre (b. 1970) found inspiration for his two compositions in the Spanish poetry of Octavio Paz. Of “Water Night” the composer writes:

The poetry of Octavio Paz is a composer's dream. The music seems to set itself (without the usual struggle that invariably accompanies this task) and the process feels more like cleaning the oils from an ancient canvas to reveal the hidden music than composing. “Water Night” was no exception, and the tight harmonies and patient unfolding seemed to pour from the poetry from the first reading, singing its magic even after the English translation. “Water Night” is simply the natural expression of this beautiful poem. . . .

“Cloudburst,” set to a verse entitled “The Broken Water Jar,” is another spiritual contemplation couched in water imagery. In the first half of the composition, the entire poem is sung in largely chordal fashion, but with passages of free chanting on the words, “we must sleep [with open eyes].” The second half is a “cloudburst” in which handbells and a battery of percussion paint the storm in sound as the choir sings “eyes of dream-water . . . we must sing aloud . . . the rain, the rain.” Whitacre writes:

The Cloudburst is a ceremony, a celebration of the unleashed kinetic energy in all things. The mood throughout is reverent, meditative and centered. This does not imply solemn or calm; it simply means the performer must take the spiritual journey with total respect for the power of the water and the profundity of the rebirth.

“Cloudburst” won first prize for its twenty-three-year-old composer in the 1993 American Choral Directors Association “Composers of the Future” competition. Eric Whitacre is Composer-in-Residence (2000-2003) for Pacific Chorale.

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