World-Filling Light
For three groups of amateur musicians and a professional sextet
LINK TO: Link
YEAR: 2012
ORCHESTRATION: Three groups of mixed instrumental ensembles of amateur musicians and a professional sextet: flute, clarinet, vibraphone, violin, violoncello and double bass
DURATION: 35'
LANGUAGE: English
WORDS BY: Inspired by Rabindranath Tagore's 'Light' from Gitanjali, translated by William Radice
COMMISSIONED BY: Wigmore Hall Trust, London
DEDICATION: William Radice
AVAILABILITY: Contact the composer for details.
WORK NOTES:
graphic image from Movement 5 of the score
Gitanjali 57 (57)
[From Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali: Song Offerings, a new translation by William Radice (Penguin India, New Delhi, 2011), pp. 78-9. Used by kind permission of William Radice. Copyright William Radice.]
Light, light, light, oh light
that fills the world!
Eye-bathing light by which
our hearts are swirled.
Light, light, light, oh light
that fills the world!
Eye-bathing light by which
our hearts are swirled.
Light that dances, brothers, rolling
our lives along;
Light that twangs our heartstrings like
the veena’s song.
Sky awaking, planet laughing,
breeze unfurled:
Light, light, light, oh light
that fills the world!
Eye-bathing light by which
our hearts are swirled.
Streams of light for sails of thousands
of butterflies;
Waves of light where dancing jasmines
buoyantly rise.
Streams of light for sails of thousands
of butterflies;
Waves of light where dancing jasmines
buoyantly rise.
Gold in the sky, jewels in the clouds
beyond compare;
Smiling trees, oh brothers, heaps
of joy in the air.
Overflowing heavenly river,
nectar hurled;
Light, light, light, oh light
that fills the world!
Eye-bathing light by which
our hearts are swirled.[1]
[1] From Tagore’s play Achalayatan (1912). See Introduction, p. xliv. Although it is a song with a splendid melody, and I have given the repetitions it has when sung, it also has the energy of a poem, so I have used metre and rhyme as well. (W.R.)