Wild Nights!
Grade 5
© 2012, GIA Publications, Inc.
Item #: B-B07520 Status: Available
ZIP for $5.99
Description:
This bundle includes:
1. A digital PDF of the Teacher Resource Guide from the Teaching Music textbook
2. An mp3 recording of the work
About this work, the composer states:
WILD NIGHTS! is a joyous, colorful seven-minute musical jour- ney inspired by Emily Dickenson’s poem.
Numerous composers have set the words of WILD NIGHTS! to music (Lee Hoiby’s song setting and John Adams’ Harmonium come immediately to mind). However, to my knowledge, no one has used this wonderfully sensuous poem as the basis for a purely instrumental tone poem. This is my aim, and in so doing I focused most heavily on the lines “Done with the compass/Done with the chart” and “Rowing in Eden/Ah! the sea!” These words suggested the sense of freedom and ecstatic joy that I tried to express in my work.
Throughout the piece, even during its darker middle section, the music is mercurial, impetuous, optimistic. A jazzy rhythmic motive permeates the journey. Unexpected events come and go, lending spontaneity and a sense of freedom. The work is composed in five dis- tinct sections, but contained within each section are numerous surprises and a devil-may-care swagger. Surprises are found at every turn, and continue right through to the final cadence.
Format: ZIP