Commissioned by Chanticleer – a madrigal for 12 voices.
From the composer:
In setting Rossetti’s “Paradise: In a Symbol,” the reference in the choral repertoire that came to me was Clément Janequin’s Le Chant des Oiseaux, a staple for choral singers and an enduring example of a composer having fun incorporating bird-calls. Modeling the Janequin provided ideas about the overall architecture of the piece and some textual considerations: I borrowed the verse-refrain form of Le Chant des Oiseaux, where verses of the poem alternate with bird-calls; and I used the French syllables of Janequin’s birds in Birds of Paradise. I also liked the happy juxtaposition of Janequin’s “le dieu d’amours vous sonne” (“the god of love calls you”) with Rossetti’s soul
being called to heaven. Birds of Paradise is written in the spirit of the 16th-century madrigal, and is a loving tribute to a work many singers encounter in their first blush of choral singing.
In writing for Chanticleer, there is a temptation to compose to a level that means very few other choirs will perform the piece. And for a while, I tried to make a setting that would be in four parts and might easily find repeat performances with other groups. In the end though, it was too much fun to write for each of these fine singers. The final work is in twelve parts (sometimes choir with birds, sometimes all twelve parts combining in a musical aviary). A second element of writing with Chanticleer in mind is what each singer brings to the ensemble. These are all accomplished singers of Lied and chansons; so they know how to portray musical character. As the work progressed from the light-hearted cries of birds to the nobility of the soul’s transcendence
to heaven, I felt I could write with the assurance that the singers of Chanticleer would find the color and tone to portray the rich beauty of Rossetti’s text.
The text:
Golden-winged, silver-winged,
Winged with flashing flame,
Such a flight of birds I saw,
Birds without a name:
Singing songs in their own tongue
(Song of songs) they came.
One to another calling,
Each answering each,
One to another calling
In their proper speech:
High above my head they wheeled,
Far out of reach.
On wings of flame they went and came
With a cadenced clang,
Their silver wings tinkled,
Their golden wings rang,
The wind it whistled through their wings
Where in Heaven they sang.
They flashed and they darted
Awhile before mine eyes,
Mounting, mounting, mounting still
In haste to scale the skies—
Birds without a nest on earth,
Birds of Paradise.
Where the moon riseth not,
Nor sun seeks the west,
There to sing their glory
Which they sing at rest,
There to sing their love-song
When they sing their best:
Not in any garden
That mortal foot hath trod,
Not in any flowering tree
That springs from earthly sod,
But in the garden where they dwell,
The Paradise of God.
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