MATTHEW BRIGGS
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MATTHEW BRIGGS

O Thou Whose Face Hath Felt the Winter's Wind  |  2013

3'40"
Baritone voice and piano

               In both O Thou Whose Face Hath Felt the Winter's Wind and On the Sea, I approached setting the text in a somewhat unorthodox manner.  I attempted to notate the exact pitches and rhythm of myself speaking the poem.  I then took this raw musical line and conformed it to relevant time signatures.  I used this musical material as a basis for the two pieces, and often used it directly for melodic (and sometimes harmonic) material.  Unlike When I Have Fears..., these poems are more abstract. 

                O Thou Whose Face Hath Felt the Winter's Wind

                O thou whose face hath felt the winter's wind,
                Whose eye has seen the snow clouds hung in mist,
                And the black-elm tops 'mong the freezing stars,
                To thee the spring will be a harvest-time.
                O thou whose only book has been the light
                Of supreme darkness which thou feddest on
                Night after night, when Phœbus was away,
                To thee the spring shall be a triple morn.
                O fret not after knowledge-- I have none,
                And yet my song comes native with the warmth;
                O fret not after knowledge-- I have none,
                And yet the evening listens. He who saddens
                At thought of idleness cannot be idle,
                And he's awake who thinks himself asleep.


                                                                              - John Keats (1818)

Jonathan Wall, baritone; Dr. Devon Howard, piano 
Derrada R. Rubell-Asbell, baritone; Taiko Pelick, piano

Contact

mhbriggs@att.net