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Listen to a RealAudio (G2) stream of the first movement ("I am here to sing thee songs") of this work performed by the Arkansas Chamber Singers and the Quapaw String Quartet.
Listen to a RealAudio (G2) stream of the second movement ("If you speakest not") of this work.
Listen to a RealAudio (G2) stream of the third movement ("This is my prayer") of this work.
Listen to a RealAudio (G2) stream of the fourth movement ("Light, my light/O beloved of my heart") of this work.
Listen to a RealAudio (G2) stream of the fifth movement ("Thou art the sky") of this work.
Listen to a RealAudio (G2) stream of the sixth movement ("Mother, I shall weave a chain of pearls") of this work.
Listen to a RealAudio (G2) stream of the seventh movement ("Death, my death, come and whisper to me") of this work.
Listen to a RealAudio (G2) stream of the eighth movement ("In one salutation to thee, my God") of this work.
Download an an MP3 file of the first movement of this work performed by Madrigalia and Quartsemble.
Download an an MP3 file of the second movement of this work.
Download an an MP3 file of the third movement of this work.
Download an an MP3 file of the fourth movement of this work.
Download an an MP3 file of the fifth movement of this work.
Download an an MP3 file of the sixth movement of this work.
Download an an MP3 file of the seventh movement of this work.
Download an an MP3 file of the eighth movement of this work.
Download an an MP3 file of the first movement of this work (string orchestra version) performed by Buffalo Unitarian Universalist Church Choir and Orchestra, Barbara Wagner, director.
Download an an MP3 file of the second movement of this work.
Download an an MP3 file of the third movement of this work.
Download an an MP3 file of the fourth movement of this work.
Download an an MP3 file of the fifth movement of this work.
Download an an MP3 file of the sixth movement of this work.
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Download an an MP3 file of the eighth movement of this work.
View/download a PDF file of selected sample pages from the first movement of this work. (full score)
View/download a PDF file of selected sample pages from the second movement of this work.
View/download a PDF file of selected sample pages from the third movement of this work.
View/download a PDF file of selected sample pages from the fourth movement of this work.
View/download a PDF file of selected sample pages from the fifth movement of this work.
View/download a PDF file of selected sample pages from the sixth movement of this work.
View/download a PDF file of selected sample pages from the seventh movement of this work.
View/download a PDF file of selected sample pages from the eighth movement of this work.
The Golden Harp is the result of a commission from the Arkansas Chamber Singers for a work for chorus and string quartet. The Chamber Singers wished to collaborate with the Quapaw Quartet (string quartet from the Arkansas Symphony) in presenting music written especially for the two ensembles.
The poetry of Rabindranath Tagore was suggested to the composer by a member of the Arkansas Chamber Singers. And indeed this poetry is well-suited to settings for chorus and strings. The poems are gentle and lyrical. The language is readily comprehensible and very singable. There are frequent images of floating and soaring -- images congenial to the string idiom, as the bows float across the strings, or musical lines soar into the high ranges of the instruments.
The opening song, "I Am Here to Sing Thee Songs," contains the phrase "When in the morning air the golden harp is tuned." This beautiful image of a stringed instrument captured the composer's imagination, and led to the title of the work.
All of the poetry selected for The Golden Harp is found in Tagore's collection, Gitanjali, published in 1913. The poems span the course of the poet's life. And the form of The Golden Harp mirrors this pattern. The work is divided into seven sections: triumphant at the beginning and close (#1 "Invocation" and #7 "Salutation"); more introspective in the interior sections (#2 "Beloved," #3 "Prayer," #5 "Thou Art" and #6 "My Tears of Sorrow"); and rising to a celebratory middle section (#4 "Light, My Light").
The message of The Golden Harp is spiritual, and yet very close to the center of human emotions. Tagore's poetry extols the beauty of the divine and the beauty of the soul within -- the beloved as creator, the beloved as lover. "Thou art the sky and thou art the nest as well."
Born in 1861 to an influential Bengali family, Rabindranath Tagore achieved fame as a novelist, playwright, poet, painter, lecturer, politician and composer. In 1913 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature, the first non-European to achieve such an honor. He died in 1941.
Notes by the composer