DESCRIPTION:
A work for SATB choir and orchestra based on the sonnet by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It was commissioned by Steven Karidoyanes and the Masterworks Chorale of Boston in celebration of their 75th anniversary season and premiered May 8, 2015 in Sanders Theatre at Harvard University.

The program included Handel's Coronation Anthems and Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass and "The Tides" was scored using available forces (0202-0300-timp, strings, SATB choir).

Given the occasion and the Chorale’s standing as a leading chorus in the region, it seemed fitting to set a poem by a New England native and someone of Longfellow’s stature. His lyric poetry struck me as ideal and seemed to contain everything the moment required: a rich evocation of an iconic coastal scene with celebratory expressions and words that serve as a metaphor for constancy and renewal.

Near the end of his life, Longfellow, a widely celebrated poet and former Harvard professor of modern languages, was honored in the very same Sanders Theatre which had been newly completed in the 1870s.

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THE TIDES (1874)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

I saw the long line of the vacant shore,
The sea-weed and the shells upon the sand,
And the brown rocks left bare on every hand,
As if the ebbing tide would flow no more.
Then heard I, more distinctly than before,
The ocean breathe and its great breast expand,
And hurrying came on the defenceless land
The insurgent waters with tumultuous roar.
All thought and feeling and desire, I said,
Love, laughter, and the exultant joy of song
Have ebbed from me forever! Suddenly o'er me
They swept again from their deep ocean bed,
And in a tumult of delight, and strong
As youth, and beautiful as youth, upbore me.

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PREMIERE/RECORDING
Masterworks Chorale and Orchestra
Steven Karidoyanes, Music Director and Conductor
Recorded in Sanders Theatre at Harvard University by Ken Silber
Post-production mixing and mastering by James Donahue of Whiskey Lane Productions
Video production by Dave Jamrog

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CONTACT/LINKS
Website: http://www.tomvignieri.com/bio.htm
More of Tom's music: https://soundcloud.com/vignieri-music
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tom.vignieri
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tomvignieri
Steven Karidoyanes: http://www.orchestraconductor.com
Masterworks Chorale: http://www.masterworkschorale.org
James Donahue: https://www.linkedin.com/in/whiskeylaneproductions
Dave Jamrog: http://www.davejamrog.com

OTHER CHORAL / VOCAL WORKS BY THIS COMPOSER:
There Will Come Soft Rains (treble choir & strings): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC-mUhc2c3E
Hodie Christus natus est (SATB choir, soloist & organ): https://soundcloud.com/vignieri-music/hodie-christus-natus-est
Haec dies (SATB choir, trumpet & organ): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9mxxxMy2Jg
To Sing (SATB choir): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWZMZr0CPgo
To Journey (SATB choir & wind orchestra): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS6iuKMnmC0
Two Poems in Homage to Music (voice & piano): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svkusjLIWD4
Fanfare of Voices (4 SATB choirs, 3 trumpets, timpani, organ): https://soundcloud.com/vignieri-music/fanfare-of-voices-ode-to-gfg
The Torch of Love (SATB choir, clarinet & string quartet): https://soundcloud.com/vignieri-music/the-torch-of-love
Psalm 3 (SATB choir): https://soundcloud.com/vignieri-music/psalm-3

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