The Darkling Thrush
The
small mf inblastberuff - led - plume,had chos f en - thustoflinghissoulupon - thegrowing - gloom,up -
small mf inblastberuff - led - plume,had chos f en - thustoflinghissoul upon - thegrowing -
small mf inblastberuff - led - plume,had chos f en - thustoflinghissoul upinblastberuff - led - plume,had chos f en - thustoflinghissoulupon - thegrowing - gloom,up
throughhishappy - goodnight - air
- hope,whereof - heknew
throughhishappy - goodnight - air
throughhishappy - goodnight - air
- hopewhereof - heknew
About the Composer:
Duncan Tuomi (b. 1994) is a choral conductor and award-winning composer based in Los Angeles, California. He currently studies choral music in the Doctor of Musical Arts program at the University of Southern California (USC), where he also completed his Master of Music degree. In addition to his choral music degree, he studied composition with Dr. Frank Ticheli and Dr. Chris Rozé. He also holds a Bachelor of Music Degree in Vocal Music Education from St. Olaf College, where he studied under Dr. Anton Armstrong and Dr. Christopher Aspaas, among many others.
As a composer, Tuomi was the winner of the 2023 American Prize in Short Choral Works, College and University Division, as well as the 2021 American Choral Director’s Association’s Raymond W. Brock Memorial Student Composition Competition. He was also a composition fellow in Choral Arts Initiative’s summer 2022 PREMIERE|Project. Tuomi has had works premiered by Choral Arts Initiative under the direction of Brandon Elliott, the USC Thornton Chamber Singers and University Chorus under his own direction and under the direction of Stevie J. Hirner, the Long Beach Youth Chorus under the direction of Stevie J. Hirner, the University of Portland Chamber Singers under the direction of Dr. Michael Connolly, the Pacific University Chamber Singers under the direction of Dr. Scott Tuomi. He has received commissions from the Long Beach Youth Chorus and was commissioned to compose for the 10th annual Brothers, Sing On! Tenor/Bass Choir Festival in 2018.
About the Piece:
“The Darkling Thrush was chosen to be the third piece in the collection Hope in Darkest Winter alongside Crossing the Bar and Snow-flakes. The poem describes a solemn wintry landscape that seems to take all life and energy away, and yet a solitary thrush sings merrily against the cold. I display this sharp contrast in the sudden and simultaneous change of tempo, meter, and mode in order to completely upset the previously established harmonic texture. As the meter changes again in preparation for the tenor solo, we hear the voice of the thrush itself becoming more frenetic, as if to acknowledge that the thrush itself, in its old age and frailty, is having a last triumphant hurrah.
As the piece reaches its conclusion, the initial winter-scape theme reemerges at the final line of text “and I was unaware.” In order to refocus the attention onto the speaker of the poem who still stays amid the icy landscape described before, but in the last moments of the piece, the last ray of hope from the thrush is heard, reminding the listener that winter always passes, and that there is light and brightness on the other end.”