YOUR VOICE WANDERS IN MY HEART
chamber orchestra and mixed choir | 12 mins
Skill level: Intermediate (advanced community or college)
Style: Large expressive range, with mournful, tense, and joyous moments
YOUR VOICE WANDERS IN MY HEART is a work for chamber orchestra and mixed choir that takes inspiration from the Hindustani music of Northern India. The chosen text, written by the renowned Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), consists of twelve poems from his set of short poetry, Stray Birds (translated into English by Tagore in 1917). These select poems, reminiscent of haikus, were chosen and specifically ordered by Woolner to support the narrative of the work. "Your voice wanders in my heart" is a musical expression of a particularly challenging personal experience for the composer: grieving the death of her brother, while simultaneously celebrating a new life within, her first daughter. The work opens with the turbulent emotions felt on the first day of hearing of her brother's sudden, violent death, but soon leads to an event (conception) that transforms the piece into the growth of a life—from almost nonexistent mobility to great energy and playfulness. The singers, via the text, strive to console both composer and audience, as well as aid comprehension of birth and death as they relate to one's life.
"Your voice wanders in my heart" was made possible by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission Grant. The intent of the commission, by the St. Matthews Music Guild, was for "a piece that explores the intersection of music from a non-Western country and a musical style of the West." It originally premiered on Friday June 7 2019 at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Pacific Palisades, CA. Conducted by Dwayne Milburn, it was performed by the St. Matthews Music Guild Chamber Orchestra and professional singers from the St. Matthews church choir.
"Your voice wanders in my heart" was made possible by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission Grant. The intent of the commission, by the St. Matthews Music Guild, was for "a piece that explores the intersection of music from a non-Western country and a musical style of the West." It originally premiered on Friday June 7 2019 at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Pacific Palisades, CA. Conducted by Dwayne Milburn, it was performed by the St. Matthews Music Guild Chamber Orchestra and professional singers from the St. Matthews church choir.
LYRICS - by Rabindranath Tagore, from Stray Birds
(Ordered below as they appear in the piece)
320 - The prelude of the night is commenced in the music of the sunset, in its solemn hymn to the ineffable dark.
119 - The night kisses the fading day whispering to his ear, "I am death, your mother. I am to give you fresh birth."
48 - The stars are not afraid to appear like fireflies.
255 - Find your beauty, my heart, from the world's movement, like the boat that has the grace of the wind and the water.
80 - Your voice, my friend, wanders in my heart, like the muffled sound of the sea among the listening pines.
95 - Be still my heart, these great trees are prayers.
42 - You smiled and talked to me of nothing and I felt that for this I had been waiting long.
268 - Death belongs to life as birth does. The walk is in the raising of the foot as in the laying of it down.
2 - That I exist is a perpetual surprise which is life.
35 - The bird wishes it were a cloud. The cloud wishes it were a bird.
82 - Let life be beautiful like summer flowers and death like autumn leaves.
273 - Let my thoughts come to you, when I am gone, like the afterglow of sunset at the margin of starry silence.
