My Cathedral

Ben Morris

My Cathedral for mixed SATB choir

On a text by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

ÂŠ!November 2013 Ben Morris Music

www.benjaminmorrismusic.com bmorriscomposer@gmail.com 973-722-0460

Ben MORRIS

My Cathedral

for mixed SATB choir Duration: ca. 3’54” “My Cathedral” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) Like two cathedral towers these stately pines Uplift their fretted summits tipped with cones; The arch beneath them is not built with stones, Not Art but Nature traced these lovely lines, And carved this graceful arabesque of vines; No organ but the wind here sighs and moans, No sepulchre conceals a martyr's bones. No marble bishop on his tomb reclines. Enter! the pavement, carpeted with leaves, Gives back a softened echo to thy tread! Listen! the choir is singing; all the birds, In leafy galleries beneath the eaves, Are singing! Listen, ere the sound be fled, And learn there may be worship with-out words.

Program Notes: There were two extra-musical impetuses for my composing this piece – one was of course discovering Longfellow’s poem “My Cathedral,” and the other was a painting by Rob Gonsalves, a well-known magic realist painter in the 90’s, entitled “Wilderness Gothic.” The painting features cathedral spires that eventually meld into the natural green background of an evergreen forest. The ideas behind the poem and the painting are similar in that they touch upon the spiritual and symbolic conception of religious naturalism. I saw in this piece an opportunity to apply several sacred medieval composition techniques refracted through modern, personal prism, like the spires’ transformation into the mountain trees in Gonsalves’ painting. There are references to 15th-century French fauxbourdon, a technique in which the upper voice is doubled a fourth below in the texture, and the responsorial chant, where sections of monophony alternate with rich polyphonic textures. The alteration, and eventual elision and simultaneity, of fauxbourdon and monophonic styles and the lush, modern polyphonic textures respectively reflect Longfellow’s text, with its interchanging comparisons of cathedral iconography and the flora, fauna, and topography of a natural forest.

My Cathedral for mixed SATB Choir Ben Morris Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) Stately, Serious, and Graceful h=64 mf SOPRANO

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