Overview
Wistful Wind’s quick, rhythmic pattering of a cappella voices paints the scene for the listener: a chilly errant breeze in the hush before dawn. (Perhaps after the meterless, suspended sound-world of Golden Stars’ night?)
Just like the poet uses language to evoke imagery, the composer can use rhythm, melody, and harmony to support specific aspects of the text. In this case, quick, repeating rhythms and melodic phrases reinforce the character of this breeze: wistful, chilly, errant, contrasting with the more sustained tones of the “first carol of the lark”.
Wistful Wind is a continuation of a cycle of choral pieces based on Adela Florence Nicolson’s poetry that includes Golden Stars (F. 150), Wistful Wind (F. 152), The Plains (F. 154), Lost Delight (F. 157), Famine Song (F. 164), and Reminiscence (F. 166).
The Poem
Wistful Wind
Just in the hush before dawn
A little wistful wind is born.
A little chilly errant breeze
Thrills the grasses, stirs the trees
As it wanders on its way.
While yet the night is cool and dark,
The first carol of the lark—
Its plaintive murmurs seem to say:
“I await the sorrows of the day.”—Adela Florence Nicolson (1865-1904) published in India’s Love Lyrics (1902), edited by Christopher Lee Fraley
Verses: Faiz Ulla
Just in the hush before dawn
A little wistful wind is born.
A little chilly errant breeze,
That thrills the grasses, stirs the trees.
And, as it wanders on its way,
While yet the night is cool and dark,
The first carol of the lark,—
Its plaintive murmurs seem to say
“I wait the sorrows of the day.”—Adela Florence Nicolson (1865-1904) published in India’s Love Lyrics (1902)
Video Score
Watch a video score of Wistful Wind, listening to a recording of the premiere on June 2, 2012 by the Cascadian Chorale.
