PROUD MUSIC OF THE STORM Text by Walt Whitman Proud music of the storm! Blast that careers so free, whistling across the prairies! Strong hum of forest tree-tops! Wind of the mountains! Blending, with Nature's rhythmus, all the tongues of nations; You undertone of rivers, roar of pouring cataracts; Trooping tumultuous, filling the midnight late, bending me powerless, Entering my lonesome slumber-chamber– Why have you seiz'd me? Ah, from a little child, Thou knowest, Soul, how to me all sounds became music; My mother's voice, in lullaby; The solemn hymns and masses, rousing adoration, All passionate heart-chants, sorrowful appeals, Song of lost love--the torch of youth and life quench'd in despair,
Give me to hold all sounds, Fill me with all the voices of the universe, The tempests, waters, winds–operas and chants– marches and dances, pour in–for I would take them all. Then I woke softly, And pausing, questioning the music of my dream, I said to my silent, curious Soul, Go forth, Cheerfully tallying life, walking the world, the real, What thou hast heard, O Soul, was not the sound of winds, Nor dream of raging storm, But, to a new rhythmus fitted for thee, Poems, bridging the way from Life to Death, vaguely wafted in night air, uncaught, unwritten, Which, let us go forth in the bold day, and write.
The measureless sweet vocalists of ages, Of winds and woods and might y ocean waves;
Performance Time
c. 9:00
About the Work Jointly commissioned by the Dallas Symphony Chorus and Dallas Independent School District for the “Celebration of Singing” in honor of the 40th anniversary of the DSC. Joshua Habermann, conductor.
About the Composer Considered “highly imaginative…with big ideas” (Baltimore Sun) and “stirring and uplifting” (Miami Herald), award-winning composer Jake Runestad (b. 1986) has received commissions and performances from leading ensembles and organizations such as Washington National Opera, the Netherlands Radio Choir, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cincinnati Vocal Arts Ensemble, Seraphic Fire, the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, the Virginia Arts Festival, the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, and Craig Hella Johnson and Conspirare. Dubbed a “choral rockstar” by American Public Media, Jake is one of the most frequently performed composers in the U.S.A. Jake Runestad holds a Master’s degree in composition from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins Universit y where he studied with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts. Find out more at: JakeRunestad.com