Never Final, Never Gone for SATB chorus & piano
Never Final, Never Gone was composed for Bruce Chamberlain and the University of Northern Iowa Concert Chorale. Both the text and the music were written while I was teaching courses in American studies in St. Petersburg, Russia in the fall of 1993.
Statue of Rimsky-Korsakov, in the square just outside the Conservatory in St. Petersburg, Russia, Fall 1993
During that time I was living in a dormitory of Herzen University, located just a few blocks off of the main thoroughfare of Nevsky Prospect, near the great Kazansky Cathedral. There is a small park across from that cathedral where I often used to sit and people-watch on cool October mornings. I wrote this text in that park:
In the beautiful dream, a man wakes up.
Nervous in the garden, he remains on his back
Feeling warm earth while gazing at the sky
(disappearing stars).
Now feeding him, she
(not seen before this)
Whispers the cooler air of the morning night, also fading.
The man hopes, by lying still, to keep the disappearing
Constant and mesmerizing; the fading,
A luxurious delicacy:
Never final, never gone.
Listen – now she (how she) laughs.
Please note that the cost of the music is per copy required for performance.
- Instrumentation:
- SATB chorus, piano
- Date completed:
- 1993
- Duration:
- ca. 2:30
- Author:
- Text by the composer
- Audio:
Never Final, Never Gone
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