High Flight
VIDEO
University of Illinois Oratorio Society and the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra; Stephen Alltop, conductor
DURATION
3’15”
VERSIONS
SATB (div.) & piano
SATB (div.) & chamber ensemble (flute, oboe, percussion, harp, piano, string quartet)
POET
John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
YEAR COMPOSED
2014
COMMISSIONER
San Francisco Choral Society in collaboration with the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir
THIS IS A MOVEMENT FROM:
Terra Nostra
ORDERING SCORES
Theodore Presser Company
SATB & piano: https://www.presser.com/312-41902-high-flight.html
SATB & chamber ensemble: https://www.presser.com/312-41902a-high-flight.html
TEXT
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.