top of page
Choral
Light (A Setting of Rabindranath Tagore’s Poetry)
SATB a cappella chorus
Year Written: 2016
Duration: 7:13
Theme: Multicultural/India
DEVELOPED BY DUMASTAR
Commissioned and Premiered By
Clerestory in celebration of their 10th anniversary. San Francisco and Berkeley, 2016
Text: Tagore
Light, my light, the world-filling light, the eye kissing light,
heart-sweetening light!
Notes
The poem “Light” is from Gitanjali (Song Offerings). The setting of “Light” begins without words in a slow unfolding of the South Indian raga” rasikapriya,” one of the more unusual ragas with a raised 4th in its scale melody. The raga frames the entire work, from its opening unfurling to the imbedded harmonic structures supporting the through-composed setting of the text. The work is dedicated to Clerestory, whose extraordinary blend of voices evoke what Tagore, as both musician and poet, perhaps meant by “heart-sweetening light!”
Preview this score
bottom of page