Climb
by Elizabeth Alexander
SSATB - Sheet Music

Mixed Chorus and Piano (SSATB choir and piano) - Moderately Advanced

SKU: SF.SEA-059-01

Composed by Elizabeth Alexander. Collegiate Repertoire, Community Chorus, High School Chorus, Concert Music. Courage, Freedom, Secular, Choral. Octavo. With Text language: English. Duration 5 minutes. Published by Seafarer Press (SF.SEA-059-01).

Poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay, "On Thought In Harness".

In Edna St. Vincent Millay's poem, "On Thought in Harness," a falcon's timidness reflects our own reluctance to embrace freedom and risk. Elizabeth Alexander's rapturous setting of Millay's words gradually ascends into extravagant flight, with contemplative solos, a lustrous piano part, and soaring vocal lines.
Commissioned by Cedarburg High School Choir; Darciann Ketter conductor (Cedarburg, WI)

Text: My falcon to my wrist Returns From no high air. I sent her toward the sun that burns Above the mist; But she has not been there. Her talons are not cold; her beak Is closed upon no wonder; Her head stinks of its hood, her feathers reek Of me, that quake at the thunder. Degraded bird, I give you back your eyes forever, ascend now whither you are tossed; Forsake this wrist, forsake this rhyme; Soar, eat ether, see what has never been seen; depart, be lost, But climb. From Wine From These Grapes, copyright 1934, 1962 by Edna St. Vincent Millay and Norma Millay Ellis. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Elizabeth Barnett, literary executor for the Millay Society.