THE MYSTIC TRUMPETER

THE MYSTIC TRUMPETER
Setting for Tenor and Piano
of the Poem by Walt Whitman

Publisher
in manuscript

Availability
planned for publication in 2024

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

Vocal Range
E-flat 4  :  A 5

Duration
18′ 00″

Vocal Tessitura
G 4  :  D 5

Year of Composition
2021

First Performance
TBD

First Performers
Anthony Dean Griffey, tenor
Warren Jones, piano

Listen
no recording is available at this time