after all white horses are in bed by Gwyneth W. Walker Choir - Digital Sheet Music

A collection of five songs for high voice and piano on poems by E. E. Cummings. Gwyneth Walker's music is accessible and singable, yet responsive to text and convincing. though love be a day, five songs for high voice and piano on poems by E. E. Cummings and Gwyneth Walker, was composed in 1979 for Soprano Kathryn Bennett, a student at the Oberlin College Conservatory. [Gwyneth Walker was on the faculty of the Conservatory at that time.] The initial poem selected for the set was "after all white horses are in bed." These words immediately suggested a musical setting as a love song. And this song became the centerpiece (third song) of the cycle. The other poems in the set were selected to introduce and frame "...white horses." No. 2, "lily has a rose" and No. 4, "maggie and millie and mollie and may" are lighthearted and lively, to contrast with "white horses." The opening song, "thy fingers make early flowers," beckons the listener to enter the romantic and playful world of e.e. cummings: "do not fear, though love be a day, we will go a-maying." And the final "Still" (poem by Gwyneth Walker) was created to provide an intense and powerful closing to the cycle.  The number five figures prominently in this music. There are five songs. The title contains five words. There are many references to fingers. Quintuplet motives appear in the piano accompaniment of several songs: quickly in the first song, slowly in the last song.  Contents:Thy fingers make early flowerslilly has a roseafter all white horses are in bedmaggie and millie and molly and maystill