Hope is the thing with feathers...(314)

Hope is the thing with feathers- (314) By Emily Dickinson Hope is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul - And sings the tune without the words - And never stops - at all - And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard - And sore must be the storm - That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm - Iive heard it in the chillest land - And on the strangest Sea - Yet - never - in Extremity, It asked a crumb - of me. It is a simple poem, with a simple metaphor. Hope is a bird perched in your soul. It stays with you, no matter the circumstance, and does not ask for anything in return. The text supplies so many DELICIOUS consonants in strong beats of the lines that it lends itself well for choral singing. The poetry has a rhythm to it that is very musical. It was my goal to mirror in the music what the lyrics are saying. Here are a few note about the musical choices that I made, and how they relate to the words. -When Emily Dickinson died, she was not famous. She was a recluse, and it was not until after her death that her vast collection of poetry was discovered, catalogued, and published on a wide scale. She never titled her poetry, so her poems are known by their first lines. Editors have since organized her poetry into collections, and most of her poems also have numbers assigned to them. This particular poem is cataloged as 314, and I used those arbitrary numbers to come up with the tune without the words, using the 3rd, 1st, and 4th scale degrees as the simple 3 note motif. (If you have that motif, bring it out!) -When the sopranos are repeating -and never stops- be very literal with that lyric. Scatter breathing only! -The chord clusters are supposed to get more and more dissonant as the words are talking about abashing storms, etc., but the sopranos are insistent in their never-stopping Bb, until the rest of the group finally resolves to a Bb chord on -warm.- -In the -chillest land-, it switches to Eb minor tonality, a very chilly key. a -When singing about the strangest sea, there is a strange chord (Fb major) -The recapitulation is just that- a coda of sorts on what came before. It should feel like a cathartic release into familiar territory after our trip to storms, chilly lands, strange seas, extremities, etc. It returns to a major key, and reminds us of that 3-note hope motif. Bring it out (quietly). I hope that the choir and the audience enjoy learning, performing, and listening to the piece. Regards, Joe Eckman