A Magic Like Thee

Performed by The Singers, Matthew Culloton, conductor

Perusal scores are downloadable and viewable but not printable.

Instrumentation: Unaccompanied SATB chorus

Duration: ca. 6 minutes

Movements:
I. She Walks In Beauty
II. Stanzas For Music (There Be None of Beauty’s Daughters)

Text: “She Walks In Beauty” and “Stanzas For Music (There Be None of Beauty’s Daughters)” by George Gordon, Lord Byron (1815). Public domain.

Year composed: 2012

Place composed: Costa Mesa, California

Performances: Premiered by The Singers, Matthew Culloton, conductor, St. Paul, MN, May 2014

Program Notes: A Magic Like Thee is a setting of two poems by Lord Byron, “She Walks In Beauty” and “Stanzas For Music (There Be None of Beauty’s Daughters).” It employs word painting throughout to bring to life the vivid imagery in both poems. The first movement is slower and explores the contrast of light and darkness in the text, while the second movement is more driving and uses energetic rhythms idiomatic in pop and rock music. The piece was chosen by The Singers, a Minneapolis-based choral ensemble, out of nearly 400 submissions to be one of four pieces to receive its world premiere on their New Horizons concert in St. Paul, Minnesota, on May 31, 2014.