Listen to the Radiance (formerly Vox 16) premiere of Break, Break, Break (from 16-Apr-2016).
Fraley-BreakBreakBreak-PerusalAvailable 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)
Listen to a digital demo of Break, Break, Break while viewing a perusal score:
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