for Tenor solo, SATB (with divisions), and orchestra
The World Imagined explores themes around the smallness of man, the apprehension of the divine in everything around us, and our ecstatic communion within that vastness. The powerfully evocative texts invite deep spiritual contemplation, and are drawn from diverse sources ranging from an early Latin hymn by St Ambrose to contemporary poems by Doris Kareva and Kenneth White. The work is structured in five continuous movements, with a tenor soloist joining the choir in the second, fourth (where they have a melismatic extended solo passage), and fifth. Profound words by Wallace Stevens--'How high that highest candle lights the dark. Out of this same light, out of the central mind, We make a dwelling in the evening air, In which being there together is enough.'--draw this monumental work to a close, with wind and strings leading us to a final chord that resounds with quiet, hopeful optimism at the end of this transformative musical experience.