The cry of the peacocks

chamber choir a cappella
The cry of the peococks was written for the 3rd International Choir Biƫnnale Haarlem, for the Dutch Chamber Choir, with financial support of the Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst.
Published by Donemus

The cry of the peacocks is based on the poem of the same name by Wallace Stevens.

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The poet describes his fear of the dark night, in fact his fear of death by using the eery cry of the peacocks in the twilight. I incorporated these cries in my composition.

Domination of Black

At night, by the fire,

The colors of the bushes

And of the fallen leaves,

Repeating themselves,

Turned in the room,

Like the leaves themselves

Turning in the wind.

Yes: but the color of the heavy hemlocks

Came striding.

And I remembered the cry of the peacocks.

 

The colors of their tails

Were like the leaves themselves

Turning in the wind,

In the twilight wind.

They swept over the room,

Just as they flew from the boughs of the hemlocks

Down to the ground.

I heard them cry - the peacocks.

Was it a cry against the twilight

Or against the leaves themselves

Turning in the wind,

Turning as the flames

Turned in the fire,

Turning as the tails of the peacocks

Turned in the loud fire,

Loud as the hemlocks

Full of the cry of the peacocks?

Or was it a cry against the hemlocks?

 

Out of the window,

I saw how the planets gathered

Like the leaves themselves

Turning in the wind.

I saw how the night came,

Came striding like the color of the heavy hemlocks

I felt afraid.

And I remembered the cry of the peacocks.

 

From: the collected poems of Wallace Stevens. (publ. Alfred A. Knopf, New York)