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Sheet Music: ScoreWonders : for soprano, baritone, 2 choirs and orchestra / Carl Vine ; words by Walt Whitman.by Carl Vine (2016)
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Product details
Wonders was commissioned by Sydney Philharmonia Choirs
as a concert companion for Vaughan Williams' renowned Sea
Symphony, and so uses similar forces with large choir and
two soloists. Like that work it also features text by Walt
Whitman, being a setting of his 1855 poem, 'Who learns my lesson
complete?', which was renamed 'Wonders' in the 1892 edition of
Leaves of Grass. (This substantial collection of poetry
also supplied the words for Vaughan Williams' symphony).
'Wonders' is a short poem in twenty-six lines of free verse. I
was drawn to it for its manifest humanism, its tangible though
irreligious spirituality and its powerful expression of communal
inclusivity. Although the text functions largely as a soliloquy,
its message is meant equally for all, and so in my setting is
passed between the soloists and the collective consciousness of
the two choirs - large and small. The soloists speak respectively
for the male and female principle of the original voice, while
the choirs echo the social sentiment of acceptance.
It is hard to not get swept up in the boundless beauty that the
poet finds in the simple things that surround us every day: from
one's eyesight, friendship and conversation up to the miracles of
childbirth and the unknowable extent of time and the universe. In
this concise statement the poet has encapsulated a comprehensive
holistic view of humankind and the way we should live together.
It is wonderful.
Carl Vine, June 2016
Published by: Australian Music Centre (under licence from Faber Music) — 1 score (53p. -- A3 (portrait))
Difficulty: Advanced
Duration: 15 mins
Commissioned by Sydney Philharmonia Choirs.
First performance by Penelope Mills, Chris Hillier, Sydney Youth Orchestra, Brett Weymark, Sydney Philharmonia Symphony Chorus, Sydney Philharmonia Festival Chorus at Carl Vine - Wonders (Sydney Opera House, Concert Hall) on 22 Sep 2016
Includes program note and copy of text.
Typeset edition.
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