than i ever knew

This piece sets a poem by Amy Lowell, vividly conveying the effect of the wind through a moving tapestry of eighth notes/quavers intertwined between the different voices. The melody floats over this breeze-like ostinato, sometimes effervescent, sometimes reposed. The piece concludes much like it begins, with a sense of calm and restfulness toward the nocturnal journey.

“The wind is singing through the trees to-night,
A deep-voiced song of rushing cadences
And crashing intervals. No summer breezeIs this, though hot July is at its height,
Gone is her gentler music; with delight
She listens to this booming like the seas,
These elemental, loud necessities
Which call to her to answer their swift might.
Above the tossing trees shines down a star,
Quietly bright; this wild, tumultuous joy
Quickens nor dims its splendour.
And my mind, O Star! is filled with your white light, from far,
So suffer me this one night to enjoy
The freedom of the onward sweeping wind.”

— Amy Lowell