My Little Dreams
For SATB Choir
My Little Dreams
Composer’s (Program) Note
Georgia Douglass Johnson is known as one of the champions of poetry and literature in the Harlem Renaissance. Her home in Washington, DC was an important meeting place for writers, poets, and other artists. Her career and impact on writing and culture in the United States is formidable, yet her poetry feels incredibly modest, earnest, and personal. This poem is no exception, detailing how one's own dreams can sometimes be precious, terrifying, and overwhelming.
One look at Johnson’s life, however, will show how she did not let that fear stop her pursuits. The impacts of her work as an artist and a leader in her time were dedicated to helping others find that same determination — with fell relentless art.
Performance Note
The recurring solos in this setting should not feel interrupted by, but rather affirmed and bolstered by the ensemble that joins or responds to them. The ensemble should be careful to not let their entrances feel like a sudden change in dynamic, but rather a natural conclusion of a growing motion.
Text
I’m folding up my little dreams
Within my heart tonight, And praying I may soon forget
The torture of their sight.
For time’s deft fingers scroll my brow
With fell relentless art—
I’m folding up my little dreams
Tonight, within my heart.
-Georgia
Douglass Johnson (1880-1966)
thinmyhearttonight - And
thinmyhearttonight - And p pray-ingImaysoon for get
thinmyhearttonight - And p pray-ingImaysoon
thinmyhearttonight