On the Hillside
SATB divisi and Piano
Length: 5:30
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SATB divisi and Piano
Length: 5:30
Download perusal score.
Minimum order quantity: 10
Note: This is a digital score (PDF).
*If you need to purchase fewer copies than allowed, please fill out this form for special requests!
SATB divisi and Piano
Length: 5:30
Download perusal score.
Minimum order quantity: 10
Note: This is a digital score (PDF).
*If you need to purchase fewer copies than allowed, please fill out this form for special requests!
Description
On the Hillside was composed at the very start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 when we were all trapped in our own homes. I felt very uninspired and stressed as I was making the transition to online schooling, but eventually I became extremely bored. So I sat down to read some poetry, and I stumbled upon this poem by Radclyffe Hall (1880-1943) and felt inspired for the first time in months. Under the light of a single piano lamp, I stayed up all night drafting ideas and melodies (There is a video on Facebook from this night that I like to look back on when remembering the writing process for this piece). I initially wrote an art song for high voice that would become the final movement of my song cycle Of Memories and Dreams.
Once I completed the song cycle in the fall of 2020, I started thinking about new choral pieces. I turned to this movement and arranged it for a choir over Christmas break. The text for this piece is a gentle and beautiful love scene as one person watches their partner fall asleep next to them; a sign of immense trust. While their partner sleeps, the poet describes the natural beauty around them and how their heart beats passionately, but through it all, they let their partner sleep undisturbed. And I like to imagine that the poet also falls asleep with them.
On the Hill-Side
A Memory
You lay so still in the sunshine,
So still in that hot sweet hour–
That the timid things of the forest land
Came close; a butterfly lit on your hand,
Mistaking it for a flower.
You scarcely breathed in your slumber,
So dreamless it was, so deep–
While the warm air stirred in my veins like wine,
The air that had blown through a jasmine vine,
But you slept – and I let you sleep.
–Radclyffe Hall (1880-1943)
