This piece was written as part of the 2010 Summer Choral Composers Forum at Lehigh University with Steven Sametz and Chen Yi. The first version was written over the course of a week, at the end of which it was premiered by the Princeton Singers. The TTBB version was premiered the next spring by the Lehigh University Glee Club and taken on their tour of Costa Rica that summer. In the Spring of 2012, the updated SSATBB version was premiered by the Juniata College Concert Choir and taken on their tour of Ireland.

The work is a heartfelt setting of two William Blake poems, presented in a style reminiscent of collegiate a cappella.

Text
by William Blake

from “Night”

The sun descending in the west,
The evening star does shine;
The birds are silent in their nest,
And I must seek for mine.

“A Dream”

Once a dream did weave a shade
O’er my angel-guarded bed,
That an emmet lost its way
Where on grass methought I lay.

Troubled, wildered, and forlorn,
Dark, benighted, travel-worn,
Over many a tangle spray,
All heart-broke, I heard her say:

‘Oh my children! do they cry,
Do they hear their father sigh?
Now they look abroad to see,
Now return and weep for me.’

Pitying, I dropped a tear:
But I saw a glow-worm near,
Who replied, ‘What wailing wight
Calls the watchman of the night?

‘I am set to light the ground,
While the beetle goes his round:
Follow now the beetle’s hum;
Little wanderer, hie thee home!’