Darkness
VIDEO
Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra; Stephen Alltop, conductor
Soloist: Betany Coffland, mezzo-soprano
DURATION
4’
POET
Lord Byron
INSTRUMENTATION
Voice with piano
YEAR COMPOSED
2014
THIS IS A MOVEMENT FROM:
Terra Nostra
COMMISSIONER
Commissioned by the San Francisco Choral Society and the Piedmont East Bay Children's Choir
as part of Terra Nostra (oratorio).
ORDERING SCORES
Theodore Presser Company
Click to view product page.
TEXT
I had a dream, which was not all a dream.
The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal space,
Rayless, and pathless, the icy earth
Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;
Morn came and went—and came, and brought no day,
And men forgot their passions in the dread
Of this their desolation; and all hearts
Were chill'd into a selfish prayer for light:
And they did live by watchfires—and the thrones,
The palaces of crowned kings—
Were burnt for beacons; cities were consum'd,
And men were gather'd round
To look once more into each other's face;
A fearful hope was all the world contain'd;
Forests were set on fire—but hour by hour
They fell and faded—and the crackling trunks
Extinguish'd with a crash—and all was black.
PERUSAL SCORE
Orchestrated version: https://issuu.com/theodorepresser/docs/garrop_terra_nostra_issuu/118