DESCRIPTION:
"Sure on this shining night"
from Nocturnes
by Morten Lauridsen (b. 1943)

Graduate Conducting Recital of Caleb Williams
Justin Blackwell, Piano

Performed at Church of the Redeemer (Episcopal), Chestnut Hill, MA

Sure on this shining night
Of star-made shadows round
Kindness must watch for me
This side the ground

The late year lies down the north,
All is healed, all is health
High summer holds the earth,
Hearts all whole

Sure on this shining night
I weep for wonder
Wandr'ing far alone
Of shadows on the stars.

Video: Caleb Williams, conductor
Graduate conducting recital
Church of the Redeemer, Boston

Danish-American composer Morten Lauridsen has been one of the most popular composers of choral music in the last twenty years, receiving National Medal of the Arts, 3 Grammy nominations, and being the first to surpass Randall Thompson in terms of sales. Lauridsen is also an educator, teaching composition at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music. "Sure on this shining night" is the last of the three movements of his Nocturnes (2005), a collection for choir and piano which sets texts by 20th century poets dealing with the imagery of night. This particular text is extracted from "Description of Elysium", from Permit Me Voyage, the only collection of poetry by James Agee (1909-1955). Agee is better known for his film criticism and his Pulitzer prize-winning novel, A Death in the Family. Despite being a young man when he wrote this, just two years out of Harvard and one into marriage, Agee explores life and death in this text, comparing them to the seasons. Elysium, the heavenly realm of dead heroes in Greek mythology, in the undying west, where "High summer holds the earth." In this mythic place, one would walk among the stars. Elysium, might also be understood less literally, meaning a place and time of pure peace and joy, like a solitary walk under the stars. Lauridsen sets this text with meditative chant-like melodies and rhythms as well as contemporary harmonies, pulling the listener into gently lulling waves of rest which then surge upward into moments of rapturous joy. The music expresses complete contentment, complementing the perfect eternity of Elysium, the land of hopes fulfilled.

Many thanks to the wonderful choir and fantastic pianist.