Featuring Britten-esque canons and beautiful imagery, this short little gem would be the perfect challenge for a children’s choir.

The Dawning captures a magical moment that occurred during the midst of the chaos and fatigue of early motherhood. Waking very early one morning to rare, pure silence, and in a glorious quasi-conscious state, the beads of dim sunlight glinting through the small holes in the bedroom blind highlighted the beauty of the inanimate objects and seemed to bring them to life. The delight of this fragile moment was further heightened by the surety of the impending cascade of reality that is heard in the final line of the piece.

 

SSA unaccompanied

2:00

 

The Dawning

Here in my room

daylight is dawning.

Tendrils of sunlight

dance upon my window pane

in the stillness of the morn.

The petals on my ceiling

unfurl to greet the day

and the porcelain bird sings a roundelay

roundelay, roundelay, roundelay.

Everything touched by the

warmth of the sun comes alive

in this land of dreams.

Here in my room.

Magic abounds

until life breaks the spell.

 

© Tesch-Muller 2010

 

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