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Twilight - (2011)
Hazel Hall
for medium voice and piano
Tiptoeing twilight,
Before you pass,
Bathe light my spirit
As dew bathes grass.
Quiet the longing
Of my hands that yearn,
As you fold the flower
And hush the fern.
Guard me with shadows
To fortify
My failing purpose,
My tired eye,
That in your stillness
I may relight
My faith's frail candle
Before the night.[ 1 page, circa 2' 30" ]
Hazel Hall
Born in 1886, Hazel Hall survived scarlet fever at the age of twelve, and had to use a wheelchair for the rest of her life. While working as a seamstress in her twenties, she began to write poetry. Her first published poem "To an English Sparrow" appeared in the Boston Evening Transcript in 1916. Her work appeared in The Century Magazine, Harper's Magazine, The New Republic, The Nation, Poetry, Yale Review, and Literary Review. After too brief a career she died in 1924.
The mostly octatonic harmonic colors remain unsettled, while rooted mostly on C, drifting into alterations hinting of the melodic minor and then returning to the beginning. The form takes the four strophes as two verses with a short ending.
The score for Twilight is available as a free PDF download, though any major commercial performance or recording of the work is prohibited without prior arrangement with the composer. Click on the graphic below for this piano-vocal score.
