Choral Brontë

The Rockbridge Weekly (Virginia) informs about an upcoming concert, today December 2, by the Rockbridge Youth Chorale that has a Brontë connection:

The Rockbridge Youth Chorale, Laura de Maria, director, and Joshua Harvey, accompanist, will present its Holiday Concert at 3 p.m. Saturday, December 2, in the Lexington Presbyterian Church. (...)

The music for this year’s Holiday Concert will include ‘Wintersong’, a beautiful poem by Emily Bronte with music by Audrey Snyder (...)

Wintersong? We don't know any Emily Brontë's poem with that name. But we have made a little bit of research and we have discovered that Audrey Snyder has set to music more poems by Emily Brontë:

Autumn Vesper

By Audrey Snyder. (2-Part (Opt. SSA)). Choral Octavo. Easy Choral Masterworks
Series. Pop. Level: Moderately Easy (grade II). Choral Octavo. 8 pages.
Published by Alfred Publishing. (SV9401)
Emily Bronte's poetry is beautifully set in a lyric song style. The musical painting of an autumn evening is superbly accomplished in flowing lines and a supportive accompaniment. The musical colors offer the ensemble many opportunities for expressive singing. In our Easy Choral Masterworks series.

Looking at this fragment of the partiture (or listening to this brief fragment) it can be seen that it is the last stanzas of Written in Aspin Castle (first published in 1901, the poem was begun in Brussels on 20 August 1842 and completed in Haworth on 6 February 1843). The last two stanzas are as follows:

O'er wood and wold, o'er flood and fell
O'er flashing lake and gelaming dell
The harvest moon looks down

And when heaven smiles with love and light
And earth looks back so dazzling bright
In such a scene, on such a night
Earth's children should not frown -

Wintersong

By Audrey Snyder. (2-Part Treble/Opt. SSA). Choral Octavo. Easy Choral
Masterworks Series. Pop. Level: Easy (grade I). Choral Octavo. 12 pages.
Published by Alfred Publishing. (SV9332)
Audrey's setting of Emily Bronte's beautifully poignant text is stunning. The music is melodically accessible, and the keyboard part, wonderfully supportive. This work will be performed many times for years to come. An Easy Choral Masterwork.

The song sets to music a slightly modified poem by Emily Brontë, Fall Leaves Fall, mixed with some other verses by Audrey Snyder herself. You can take a look at the partiture or listen to the WHOLE song.

Fall leaves fall die flowers away
Lengthen night and shorten day
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree
I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow
I shall sing when night's decay
Ushers in a drearier day.

(First published in 1910, dated 23 September 1836 (?) 1838 (?)

Categories: Music, Poetry, Alert, Emily Brontë