I will put Chaos into fourteen lines
AUDIO
Volti; Robert Geary, conductor
DURATION
3’15”
INSTRUMENTATION
SATB (div.) a cappella
POET
Edna St. Vincent Millay
YEAR COMPOSED
2001
COMMISSIONER
Commissioned by the Dale Warland Singers
THIS IS A MOVEMENT FROM:
Sonnets of Love and Chaos
ORDERING SCORES
This work is published as a digital score with a performance license. The pricing is based on the number of singers in a choir:
- $50: up to 20 singers
- $100: 21-50 singers
- $150: 51-79 singers
- $200: 80+ singers
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PERUSAL SCORE
Click here
TEXT
I will put Chaos into fourteen lines
And keep him there; and let him thence escape
If he be lucky; let him twist, and ape
Flood, fire, and demon --- his adroit designs
Will strain to nothing in the strict confines
Of this sweet order, where, in pious rape,
I hold his essence and amorphous shape,
Till he with Order mingles and combines.
Past are the hours, the years of our duress,
His arrogance, our awful servitude:
I have him. He is nothing more nor less
Than something simple not yet understood;
I shall not even force him to confess;
Or answer. I will only make him good.
-
HELIOS • 4’30” • 2 tpts/flugelhorns, hn, tbn, tba
PROGRAM NOTES
In Greek mythology, Helios was the god of the sun. His head wreathed in light, he daily drove a chariot drawn by four horses (in some tales, the horses are winged; in others, they are made of fire) across the sky. At the end of each day’s journey, he slept in a golden boat that carried him on the Okeanos River (a fresh water stream that encircled the flat earth) back to his rising place. The cyclic journey of Helios is depicted in this short work for brass quintet. The first half is fast-paced and very energetic, while the second half is slow and serene, representing day and night.
-S.G.