| Product Number | 7.0726* |
|---|---|
| Composer/Arranger | Chatman, Stephen |
| Text Author | Whitman, Walt |
| Voicing & Instruments | SATB Chorus and Piano |
| Difficulty | Medium |
| Text Language | English |
| Topics (Secular) | Americana |
| Publisher | Galaxy Music Corporation |
| Recording Credits | Recorded by MacMillan Singers, director Hilary Apfelstadt, and the University of Toronto Faculty of Music. Used by permission of Gordon Foote (University of Toronto) and Centrediscs. |
An arrangement of the second movement of Stephen Chatman's A Song of Joys. The piano accompaniment replicates pitches within an extensive set of Chinese bao gongs featured in the original version. Walt Whitman's text evokes the “great sun!” and feelings of warmth and love: “While we bask, we two together.” The number, two, is the primary concept of the song—two lovers, two timbres (voice and piano), two pairs of flowing contrapuntal vocal lines, two additional contrapuntal “gong” parts, two formal sections, harmonic dissonance versus resolution, tutti versus a cappella, and two climactic cadences. Duration: 2:45