Winner of the 2006 Vanguard Premieres Choral Composition Contest, this work has gone on to become one of Dan’s most-performed pieces, having been programmed on numerous All-State festivals, contests, and conferences. Text from Amy Lowell’s “Listening” (from A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass), set for SATB chorus, solo soprano, piano, and horn:
‘T is you that are the music, not your song.
The song is but a door which, opening wide,
Lets forth the pent-up melody inside,
Your spirit’s harmony, which clear and strong
Sings but of you. Throughout your whole life long
Your songs, your thoughts, your doings, each divide
This perfect beauty; waves within a tide,
Or single notes amid a glorious throng.
The song of earth has many different chords;
Ocean has many moods and many tones
Yet always ocean.
So is this
One music with a thousand cadences.
Instrumentation: Piano, Horn