Experience
(Love & Desire)
FROM: Virtues and Vices: 7 Pieces for SATB Chorus and Piano
VOICING: SATB, Soprano Solo, with Piano
DIFFICULTY: medium
TONE: longing
DURATION: 3'20"
YEAR COMPOSED: 2024
GENERAL: This work was commissioned by Sound Ecologies Inc. (Indiana 2024, Luke Garrigus, President). It premiered at Choral Reflections: Sacred Music by Indiana Composers at the University of Indianapolis, on March 7, 2024. (Recording Below)
TEXT: Elsa Gidlow (1898-1986)
Experience (Love & Desire)
Now you are gone I kiss your dented pillow
And wonder if it hungers like my breast
For the dear head we both have held in rest.
I said once: Love alone cannot assuage
My thirst, my hunger, love has no reply
For that wild questioning, for this fierce cry.
I said: there is no kiss can feed me now.
Perhaps love is life’s flower: I seek the root.
Yea, I have loved and love is dead sea fruit.
Yet, I lie here and kiss your dented pillow,
A trembling girl who loves you overmuch––
A harp in anguish for the player’s touch.
Note from the Composer
“Experience” is the fifth movement of Virtues and Vices: 7 Pieces for SATB Chorus and Piano and it explores the virtue/vice of love/desire. This love ballad in ABA form features a tragically longing A section (desire) juxtaposing a soaring and passionate B section (love). Sopranos and altos establish tension with their close harmonies. Tenors and basses thicken and support the texture as the B section blossoms. The piano passionately churns throughout, setting the tone for each section.
Ordering Scores
This work is published as a digital score with a performance license. The cost is $3.00 per score, 10 copy minimum order. See "Virtues and Vices" to purchase the complete multi-movement work.
To Order:
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Click the link to email Daniel Watson Music LLC.
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Specify the total number of performers (include all singers, directors, pianists) and the name of your choir.
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An invoice will be sent to you via PayPal requesting payment.
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Once payment is received, you will emailed the licensed PDF for the above number of copies within three business days (excluding weekends and holidays).