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The following video is The Giver of Stars by Jenni Brandon. In late 2011, Vox Reflexa unveiled the New Millennium Composers' Forum, a project which is designed to provide a low-cost method to promote choral artists and composers of choral music.

Amy Lowell's(1874-1928) poem The Giver of Stars speaks of joy and pleasure, and I wanted to express both the quiet reflection and grand excitement of these feelings within the work. At times the work moves forward joyfully, reveling in beauty, such as the section that begins "let the flickering flame of your soul play all about me." And at other times it builds slowly towards a moment of arrival, such as towards the end of the piece when the voices overlap while singing "the beauty." This section breaks into a free moment where all of the voices sing overlapping with their own rhythms and individual voices, representing an ecstatic joy and freedom of expression, and the sense of being overwhelmed by something too beautiful.

Both the opening and the ending of The Giver of Stars is expansive and floating -- I love the line "Hold your soul open" and thought that layering the text "Hold your Soul" would create this other-world feeling of vastness, of possibility, and the pure pleasure of being suspended in a dream-like state, allowing the word "open" to finally move the piece from dreams to earthly delights.

This piece was written for the Young New Yorkers' Chorus under the direction of Michael Kerschner for their sixth annual Young Composers competition in 2010. In selecting the text and particularly in setting the spaciousness of the opening of the piece, I kept in mind not only the amazing abilities of the Young New Yorkers' Chorus, but the openness of the performance space in St. Peter's church in New York City where the work was premiered on June 5th, 2010.

Jenni Brandon (b. 1977) is an award-winning composer whose music has been commissioned by many ensembles and performed in venues across the world, including Zankel Hall in Carnegie Hall. Among the ensembles who have performed her works are the Yale Glee Club, The Singers-Minnesota Choral Artists, the Young New Yorkers Chorus, Vox Femina, the Sundance Trio, Definiens, and Voices of Ascension. Jenni also makes guest composer appearances across the country, frequently giving talks on the business of music and musician collaboration. She is the Artistic Director of Synchromy, a composer's collective that regularly produces concerts of new music.

She is currently the music director of The Concert Singers, the oldest independent choir in Los Angeles. Jenni often makes guest appearances to conduct her works. Active also as a mezzo-soprano, she has appeared with the Boston Pops, Pacific Chorale, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and at the Hollywood Bowl.

Her first CD Songs of California: Music for Winds and Piano was nominated for the 10th Independent Music Awards. Her music can also be found on recordings by the Yale Glee Club, Sistrum, the Musical Arts Woodwind Quintet, and oboists Rebecca Henderson, Laura Medisky and Ryan Zwahlen.

Jenni is published by Boosey & Hawkes, Graphite Publishing, Santa Barbara Music Publishing, and Jenni Brandon Music. Please visit www.jennibrandon.com for more information.

The Giver of Stars
Amy Lowell

Hold your soul open for my welcoming.
Let the quiet of your spirit bathe me
With its clear and rippled coolness,
That, loose-limbed and weary, I find rest,
Outstretched upon your peace, as on a bed of ivory.

Let the flickering flame of your soul play all about me,
That into my limbs may come the keenness of fire,
The life and joy of tongues of flame,
And, going out from you, tightly strung and in tune,
I may rouse the blear-eyed world,
And pour into it the beauty which you have begotten.

- From Sword Blades and Poppy Seed
1914
Poem is in the public domain

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