This vibrant piano accompaniment captures the energetic spirit of the Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. The complimentary melodic vocal refrain is infused with a hopefulness that speaks to the quiet content that is uniquely American. Accessible vocal lines combined with a spirited accompaniment make this work an attractive choice for a wide variety of ensembles.
About the text . . .
Walt Whitman (1819-1892) is perhaps the most important poet linking the transcendentalist movement made famous by Ralph Waldo Emerson with the realist poets of the late 19th-century. Continuing in the tradition set forth by Emerson and Thoreau, Whitman poetry captures a style that is truly American. The text for this work is excerpted from Leaves of Grass (1881-2) first self-published by Walt Whitman. This work draws from two sections of the larger work Song of Myself (1855) and Song of the Open Road (1856)
Song of Myself – Walt Whitman
With music strong I come, with my cornets and my drums,
I play not marches for accepted victors only, I play marches for conquer’d and slain persons.
Have you heard that it was good to gain the day?
I also say it is good to fall, battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won.
I beat and pound for the dead,
I blow through my embouchures my loudest and gayest for them.
Vivas to those who have fail’d!
And to those whose war-vessels sank in the sea!
And to those themselves who sank in the sea!
And to all generals that lost engagements, and all overcome heroes!
And the numberless unknown heroes equal to the greatest heroes known!
One world is aware and by far the largest to me, and that is myself,
And whether I come to my own to-day or in ten thousand or ten million years,
I can cheerfully take it now, or with equal cheerfulness I can wait.
