Christopher Lee Fraley

composer, publisher, choral tenor

Christopher Lee Fraley
Christopher Lee Fraley

Christopher Lee Fraley

composer, publisher, choral tenor

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Ordering Information

I’m still in the process of creating a consistent easy-to-use way to order music. For choral music, you may use the order form.  For all other music, please contact me directly.  Finally, some pieces are also available at MusicSpoke or Sheet Music Plus.

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  • Music (40)
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Poets

Heinrich Heine

Adela Florence Nicolson

Isabella Parker

Christina Rossetti

Sara Teasdale

Lord Tennyson

Oscar Wilde

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English

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Sacred

Christmas

PROJECT:ENCORE

India's Love Lyrics

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a cappella Adela Florence Nicolson Alto Solo Animation Anthem A Virgin Unspotted Baptism Brightest and Best Byrd Ensemble Cascadian Chorale CD Cello Christina Rossetti Christmas Chromatic Drum Duet Eastertide Emily Dickinson English Epiphany Flute German Handbells Hebrew Heinrich Heine Horatio Parker Hymn India's Love Lyrics Isabella Parker Jazzy King Arthur Latin Lecture Lord Tennyson Mass MMR Nature Orchestra Oscar Wilde Paintings of Song Piano Piano Trio Picardy Playful PROJECT:ENCORE Recording SA SAB Sacred Sara Teasdale SATB Song SSAATTBB SSATBB String Quartet Tenor Thomas Tallis Tone Poem Video Viola Violin Vocal William Billings Woodwind Quintet
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  • Break, Break, Break

Break, Break, Break

Choral / F. 170 / SATB (a cappella) w/divisi / 5'00" / 2016 / PDF file / MP3 file
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  • Break, Break, Break (Radiance premiere performance)

Listen to the Radiance (formerly Vox 16) premiere of Break, Break, Break (from 16-Apr-2016).

Fraley-BreakBreakBreak-Perusal

Available for purchase on MusicSpoke!

Origins

I wrote “Break, Break, Break” specifically for Radiance (formerly Vox 16), a sixteen-voice professional choir directed by Markdavin Obenza. They premiered the piece on April 16, 2016 at Trinity Episcopal Church, Seattle. My goal was to take advantage of the available voices, and so wrote for eight voices where I wanted the more complex textures to reflect the crashing sea or the inner turmoil of the narrator.

Overview

Tennyson’s poem uses an interesting device to build emotional intensity. The poem opens with rather conventional imagery (crashing sea, coldness, grayness). So, too, the music starts with a texture that mimics the endless crashing waves—a cascade of falling voices resolving suspensions only to create new ones: “break, break, break, …” The main narrative is then taken up by the choir in a style that is thick with suspensions that reflect the narrator’s yearning. But Tennyson’s narrator unexpectedly describes a rather more joyful scene: boys and girls at play, lads singing, stately ships…, a mood which is directly reflected in the music. Only then does the narrator reveal his loss. Even though the closing of the poem (and the music) is similar to the start, the contrast Tennyson created has heightened our emotions, and we feel the ending very differently—we have changed.

The Poem

Break, Break, Break

Break, break, break,
On thy cold gray stone, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.

O well for the fisherman’s boy,
That he shouts with his sisters at play!
O well for the sailor lad,
That he sings in his boat on the bay!

And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill;
But O for the touch of a vanish’d hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!

Break, break, break,
At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!
But the tender grace of a day that is dead
Will never come back to me.

—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)


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  • Break, Break, Break (digital demo)

Listen to a digital demo of Break, Break, Break while viewing a perusal score:PDF file.

a cappella, English, Lord Tennyson, SATB, SSAATTBB

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