THE MYSTIC TRUMPETER

THE MYSTIC TRUMPETER
Setting for Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, or Tenor and Piano
based on the Poem by Walt Whitman

Publisher
E. C. Schirmer Music Company

Catalog Number
9260

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J. W. Pepper

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Description
THE MYSTIC TRUMPETER was published in 1872 in Kansas Magazine, an early literary periodical, and the poem became a favorite of audiences attending Whitman’s numerous poetry readings. The poem opens with a “prelude” of sorts that acknowledges the past and closes with a nod to the future. Along the way, the poem traverses the themes of love and war and intermingles images of day and night, light and dark, sun and stars. The text of Hall’s setting is based on this large eight-part poem, but for this composition the original poem has been carefully edited to reduce the size of text for musical purposes, while taking pains to maintain Whitman’s original concepts, ideas, style, and colors.

Text
The Mystic Trumpeter

The text of Juliana Hall’s composition The Mystic Trumpeter is based on Walt Whitman’s large eight-part poem of the same name, which first appeared in Kansas Magazine in February 1872. For this work, the original Kansas Magazine version of the Whitman poem has been carefully edited to reduce the size of the text for musical purposes, while taking pains to maintain Whitman’s original concepts, ideas, style, and colors.

Vocal Range
E-flat 4  :  A 5

Duration
20′ 00″

Vocal Tessitura
G 4  :  D 5

Year of Composition
2021

First Performance
August 10, 2023
Source Song Festival
Minneapolis, Minnesota

First Performers
Anthony Dean Griffey, tenor
Warren Jones, piano