D a v i d V e s s
Listen and View Score:
Instrumentation:
SATB (with small SSA and TTB divisions)
Program:
The work begins with a feverish nightmare. Biting dissonances build on "Be not afeard," as if trying to wake oneself up. We reach a high point, before finding a calm. "Be not afeard" becomes a voice of reassurance. A chorale begins, calm and collected. But not for long. From there we head into a glade of forest-like music. We hear echoes of the text, long melismas float around, almost eerily. The voices and instruments Shakespeare illustrates appear, at times enchanting, and at others, haunting. The music begins to swell, summoning a mighty sound as we approach "riches ready to drop upon me." Most of the work has been quiet and contemplative, yet here we build to a true crescendo, as if the clouds really will open. But just like in dreams, the epiphany, the moment is just beyond our grasp. If only we had not awoken. And the music evaporates, leaving a lingering feeling, of quietly and desperately wanting ‘To Dream again’.
Text:
Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears; and sometime voices, That, if I then had waked after long sleep, Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming, The clouds methought would open, and show riches Ready to drop upon me; that, when I waked, I cried to dream again. The Tempest, Act III, Scene II [Be not afeard] William Shakespeare 1564 –1616
Commission:
Commissioned by Seraphic Fire
