A Dream (2017) - 2½'
for baritone solo and piano, or
mezzo-soprano and piano
COMPOSER'S NOTE
Dedicated to my friend, bass-baritone Kerry Wilkerson, A Dream is a setting of Edgar Allan Poe's poem of the same name. Written as a sonnet, the text expresses a profound yearning for a love long lost. It is, at once, emotive and melancholic.
"The writing is rich, often rapturous"
THE TEXT
In visions of the dark night
I have dreamed of joy departed—
But a waking dream of life and light
Hath left me broken-hearted.
Ah! what is not a dream by day
To him whose eyes are cast
On things around him with a ray
Turned back upon the past?
That holy dream—that holy dream,
While all the world were chiding,
Hath cheered me as a lovely beam
A lonely spirit guiding.
What though that light, thro' storm and night,
So trembled from afar—
What could there be more purely bright
In Truth's day-star?
LICENSING
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)
RELATED RECORDINGS
At That Hour: Art Songs by Henry Dehlinger, Avie Records