There is sweet music here (SATB Chorus a cappella) | Brandon Chase Di Noto

There is sweet music here

Text: Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)
Music: Brandon Chase Di Noto (b. 1997)
Premiered in June 2024 by Choral Arts Initiative in their PREMIERE|Project Festival; Brandon Elliott, Artistic Director; Ali Sandweiss Hodges, Conductor.

Program Notes: In 2020, I discovered Edward Elgar’s setting of Tennyson’s poem. In the Fall of 2022, I relocated to Santa Barbara for a work opportunity which quickly became one of the most painful periods of my life. At every turn, it seemed that no one in the organization was willing to either help or take the choral art seriously, which was the reason I was recruited from the start. When next to nothing was providing solace or comfort, even the music I was making, Tennyson’s poem reminded me that music brings light into the darkest of days. I rhythmically set this poem in one afternoon, and the notes quickly followed. Regardless of the difficulties life brings, nothing can quell the beauty of music. The piece is the first of a five-movement cycle, English Vignettes."

Text:
"There is sweet music here that softer falls
Than petals from blown roses on the grass,
Or night-dews on still waters between walls
Of shadowy granite, in a gleaming pass;
Music that gentlier on the spirit lies,
Than tir'd eyelids upon tir'd eyes;
Music that brings sweet sleep down from the blissful skies."

For more information, please visit brandondinoto.com