Near
for mixed choir (SSAATBB)
Duration ca 6′
Commissioned by: Collegium Utrecht and Lodewijk van der Ree
Premiere: April 6, 2013
Chamber Choir Voces Musicales; Martin Sildos
Tallinn Music Week, House of the Blackheads, Estonia
The text is compiled by Evelin Seppar from ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese’ (Sonnets No 1, 6, 7, 22 and 29) by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How a mystic shape did move
Behind me and drew me,
Move still, oh, still, beside me.
When our two souls stand up,
Face to face, silent, drawing nigh and nigher,
Until our lengthening wings break into fire
At either curved point.
In this deep joy to see and hear thee
And breathe within thy shadow a new air,
I do not think of thee – I am too near thee.
Thy heart in mine
With pulses that beat double