Moonlit Apples (2013)

Moonlit Apples

At the top of the house the apples are laid in rows,
And the skylight lets the moonlight in, and those
Apples are deep-sea apples of green.
There goes a cloud on the moon in the autumn night.

A mouse in the wainscot scratches, and scratches,
And then,
There is no sound at the top of the house of men
Or mice; and the cloud is blown, and the moon again
Dapples the apples with deep-sea light.

They are lying in rows there, under the gloomy beams;
On the sagging floor; they gather the silver streams
Out of the moon, those moonlit apples of dreams,
And quiet is the steep stair under.

In the corridors under there is nothing but sleep.
And stiller than ever on orchard boughs they keep
Tryst with the moon, and deep is the silence, deep
On moon-washed apples of wonder.

John Drinkwater

Program Notes

Composed in the summer of 2013 on the poem Moonlit Apples, by John Drinkwater, presents a shadowy and hushed soundscape as the backdrop for the stillness and enchantment of Drinkwater’s landscape. Harmonic colors drift impressionistically and blur into each other becoming gestures and shadows as the singer tells a story begun and ended in the middle; occasionally a distant clock is heard.

Premier

Laura Storm, soprano; Hee-Kyung Juhn, piano
College Music Society South Central Regional Conference
Henderson State University,  Henderson AR (2017)

*Two versions available: recital (high or medium voice), and chamber (high voice, Fl, Clar, Hrn, Vln, Vla, VC)