She Walks in Beauty
SATB divisi, a cappella
Length: 5:45
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SATB divisi, a cappella
Length: 5:45
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, a cappella
Length: 5:45
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
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.
She Walks in Beauty
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!
–Lord Byron (1788-1824)
