Break, Break, Break

Tennyson’s 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…

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