SATB divisi, a cappella
Commissioned by Gar-Field High School in Fall 2005 for their debut performance in Carnegie Hall. I selected the Keats poetry at the request of their conductor, Douglas Burney, to be a thematic set with Eric Whitacre’s Sleep.
Text
O sleep a little while, white pearl!
And let me kneel, and let me pray to thee,
And let me call Heaven’s blessing on thine eyes,
And let me breathe into the happy air,
That doth enfold and touch thee all about,
Vows of my slavery, my giving up,
My sudden adoration, my great love!
— John Keats (1795-1821)