Hope

2014

Duration 5'
Instrumentation SSAATTBB featuring soprano soloist
Recorded September 2014, Church of the Holy Communion: Charleston, SC - members of Taylor Festival Choir and College of Charleston Concert Choir
Premiere May 2015, Cathedral of St. Luke and St. Paul: Charleston, SC - Piccolo Spoleto Festival - College of Charleston Concert Choir

Text

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I’ve heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

— Emily Dickinson