On Dreams Alone
4-Part - Digital Sheet Music

Choral Choir (SATB) - Level 3 - Digital Download

SKU: A0.1255263

Composed by Nicholas White. 21st Century,Broadway,Chamber,Musical/Show. Octavo. 72 pages. Nicholas White Music #848796. Published by Nicholas White Music (A0.1255263).

ON DREAMS ALONE
Music by Nicholas White, scored for soloists (optional chorus), piano, and strings.

Poems by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882), Christina Rossetti (1830- 1894), Robert Bridges (1844-1930), Arthur O’Shaughnessy (1844-1881), F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)

1. Overture
2. Dream-Love Interlude One
3. Ode (We Are The Music Makers)
4. Dream-Love Interlude Two
5. Twilight 6. Dream-Love Interlude Three
7. A Dream
8. Dream-Love Interlude Four
9. On Dreams Alone
10. Serenade
11. Dream-Love Interlude Five
12. Dream Land
13. Nightingales

“Writing From The Heart; To Thine Own Self Be True”

In 1993, I was living and working in Abilene, Texas. It was a short, and emotionally fraught, tenure for me in that fair city, during which time I was immersed in musical theatre and choral music. There was a good library at the heart of McMurry University, where I was the choral director. One afternoon, I was browsing the poetry shelves, and came across a volume of work which included two obscure, early lyrics by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I set the first lyric (“On Dreams Alone”) to music, and premiered it at a composer’s forum at Hardin Simmons University in Winter 1994. From that point on, through the years working in Washington, DC and New York City, I would write additional songs on the theme of “dreams”, selecting poetry by 19th century writers. Slowly, a larger work emerged, which is what we present tonight. Twenty-five years of slow, sustained, romantic creativity, running alongside my career as a liturgical musician. I applied for a professional development grant through McMurry University back then. My rationale was to show, by composing “On Dreams Alone”, that modern music need not be atonal or devoid of melody! A naïve concept? Or a cry for a good tune? Either way, I think it is fair to say that now, approaching the third decade of the 21st century, it is no longer an arrest-able offense to compose a good tune, as opposed to a “serious” piece of music! I was awarded the grant, but I had to give it up when I left McMurry to work at Washington National Cathedral. The quarter century that has passed since, packed with musical and character-building experiences, has allowed me to develop as a musician, and as a person. For all of this, I am eternally grateful. (Nicholas White, April 2018).