‘hope’ is a thing with feathers
(2023)
for children’s choir and piano
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CBSO Children’s Choir; Julian Wilkins (cond.) at Symphony Hall, Birmingham, on (exact date TBC) February 2024.
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for CBSO Children’s Choir
‘hope’ is a thing with feathers is a short song for young voices and piano, a setting of Emily Dickinson’s evocative poem of the same title which draws a symbolic link between birdsong and the indomitable (undefeatable) power of hope.
-njd.
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unison voices (optional harmony lines), piano
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2’
score sample
text
“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -
And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -
I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.
“Hope” is the thing with feathers
BY EMILY DICKINSON