There are a handful of famous poems that have been set to music by countless composers, and Lord Byron’s “She Walks in Beauty” is one of those texts.  I have heard and sung many settings of this famous poem, and I was skeptical to write my own because I wanted it to be special and unique.  In 2019, my good friend Audrey Burchfield encouraged me to write a setting of She Walks in Beauty, but for months, I could not find the right music for these words.  Almost a year later during my junior year at TCU, I sat down at my piano just as Winter break began, and I wrote this harmonically vibrant piece.

There are two main themes in the piece, and they both relate to my friend Audrey Burchfield.  The main theme uses the letters in her name as the melodic content that unifies the entire piece (very cheesy but it worked!).  The secondary theme comes from an art song with musical theater characteristics I wrote for Audrey in 2018 using her own words called “In Between.”  The main theme in that piece is a descending arpeggio of a major 7th chord; this appears as a secondary theme throughout She Walks in Beauty.  

The composition was completed and gifted to Audrey as a Christmas present because without our original collaboration on “In Between,” I truly believe I would not have received the opportunities I have been blessed with since.