I'd been a fan of Christina Rossetti's texts for a long time and had my heart set on setting this one. I sought to have this piece capture the dark nature of the poem. After spending many days with the poem, I allowed the text to be a guide to my compositional endeavors, creating motives that would depict elements of loss and grief. Rossetti does this exceptionally well and makes for an enjoyable creation of a musical depiction. My hope is for listeners to have to the same emotional connection to the text as I had while composing this setting.

 

Premiered by the CCM Chorale at the inaugural concert of the

2014 Midwest Composers Symposium held at the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati.