I would not paint — a picture —

I was delighted to be asked to write a piece for the Chapel Choir of King’s College, Aberdeen, for them to sing on St Cecilia’s Day this year.

I chose this text by Emily Dickinson at the suggestion of Catherine Fox:

I would not paint — a picture —
I’d rather be the One
It’s bright impossibility
To dwell — delicious — on —
And wonder how the fingers feel
Whose rare — celestial — stir —
Evokes so sweet a torment —
Such sumptuous — Despair —

I would not talk, like Cornets —
I’d rather be the One
Raised softly to the Ceilings —
And out, and easy on —
Through Villages of Ether —
Myself endued Balloon
By but a lip of Metal —
The pier to my Pontoon —

Nor would I be a Poet —
It’s finer — Own the Ear —
Enamored — impotent — content —
The License to revere,
A privilege so awful
What would the Dower be,
Had I the Art to stun myself
With Bolts — of Melody!

I tried to capture the start and stop — of all those dashes, and the Emphasis conveyed by some of the Words being capitalised. And underneath all that, I added 1 Corinthians 14:15: What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. That comes as part of a long lecture about praying in tongues, but also about women being silent in church, which I am definitely not.

Here are some robotic clarionets playing it:

And here is a .pdf file if you want to follow along.

As usual it’s available on the Choral Public Domain Library, under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike licence: so you can copy it and sing it and so on, without having to ask me for specific permission. I’m also trying to get a print copy on Lulu, but I’m struggling somewhat with the interface, so we’ll see.

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