After-Glow, for SSATB chorus, contains a setting of a poem by the English poet and composer Ivor Gurney, who wrote “After-Glow” during his time as a soldier in World War I. The poem is dedicated to his friend F. W. Harvey, himself a poet, who was being held, at the time, in a German prisoner-of-war camp. In the poem, Gurney wanders out into the night and, admiring the moon, is overcome by nostalgia as he imagines an eventual reunion with his absent friend, complete with vivid sunset and the music of Bach. The “after-glow” of the title is thus a remnant of memories both comforting and melancholy. In the music, I trace the author’s path as he moves from the noisy room full of soldiers into the stillness of night, and is eventually transported back home in a fit of rapture. After-Glow was written in 2014, and was selected as the winner of the 2014–15 NOTUS Composition Competition. It was premiered in 2015 in Bloomington, Indiana by NOTUS: the Indiana University Contemporary Vocal Ensemble with conductor Dominick DiOrio.
Recording: NOTUS: IU Contemporary Vocal Ensemble; Dominick DiOrio, conductor (Bloomington, Indiana, 2015)
After-Glow
Out of the smoke and dust of the little room
With tea-talk loud and laughter of happy boys,
I passed into the dusk. Suddenly the noise
Ceased with a shock, left me alone in the gloom,
To wonder at the miracle hanging high
Tangled in twigs, the silver crescent clear.
Time passed from mind. Time died; and then we were
Once more at home together, you and I.
The elms with arms of love wrapped us in shade
Who watched the ecstatic west with one desire,
One soul uprapt; and still another fire
Consumed us, and our joy yet greater made:
That Bach should sing for us, mix us in one
The joy of firelight and the sunken sun.
Ivor Gurney (1890–1937)
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