Darkling Thrush – Carol Barnett

Composer: Carol Barnett Text by: Thomas Hardy Instrumentation: SATB divisi, string quartet Duration: Approx. 8 minutes Date Written:  2017 Composer’s note: Hardy’s poem captures so well the gloomy thoughts of late winter, when everything is grey and all nature seems dead. But little incongruities catch our attention and lift our spirits. The tiny thrush, with its bedraggled appearance and joyous song, won’t banish seasonal affective disorder, but perhaps coaxes forth a gentle smile. The Darkling Thrush was commissioned by New Amsterdam Singers in honor of its founder and Music Director Clara Longstreth, on the occasion of the chorus's 50th Anniversary text The Darkling Thrush  I leant upon a coppice gate       When Frost was spectre-grey, And Winter's dregs made desolate       The weakening eye of day. The tangled bine-stems scored the sky       Like strings of broken lyres, And all mankind that haunted nigh       Had sought their household fires.  The land's sharp features seemed to b