“Transfiguration-Mariawald-Abbey” by Master of St Severin – Victoria and Albert Museum, [1].
Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Some time ago I set Thomas Thurman’s poem, “Transfiguration”, as a flexible anthem. It can be sung unison and organ, but if there are more voices can expand to soprano and alto, or even soprano, alto and baritone.
I’ve finally gotten around to doing a demo recording. This is a bit patchy; recording on the organ at St Andrew’s and then adding more vocal tracks when I get home leads to an odd, not very blended sound. But it gives a better idea of what the piece sounds like than MIDI robots would! As always you can download the sheet music for free, there’s a link on my works page. This piece would be especially appropriate, this year, for Sunday 15th February (if you’re using the Common Worship or Revised Common Lectionary), the Sunday Next before Lent, when the Gospel reading deals with the Transfiguration.
So, without further ado, here it is in video:
Words:
What’s seen is seen, and cannot be unknown;
and so he turned my soul, and turns it still.
We’d walked a while, just him and us alone;
we’d wandered up some ordinary hill.
The air was cold. The conversation died.
I wondered if I’d left the stove alight.
The curtains of the world were torn aside,
and naked glory overwhelmed my sight;
and oh, the voice, that called to him by name,
so comforting, so terrible to hear:
that man I knew, the same, yet not the same,
touches my arm, and tells me not to fear;
but as I raise my eyes, the light is gone,
and life, and something more, must carry on.
And here it is on Soundcloud: