When I Was Eight

Commissioned by and dedicated to the Conservatory Singers of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Robert Bode, conductor

It was in Minneapolis for the National ACDA conference in March of 2017 when Robert Bode heard my work, “All Is,” for chorus, mezzo-soprano, viola, and piano. After the reading session, he came up to me immediately, saying: “I want you to set my poetry.” I was flattered and humbled by his response to my music, and I said: “Of course! Send me some poems!” Thus began our collaboration…!

Robert sent me a collection of poems, and this particular text—written on vacation in Marrowstone Island—captured me almost instantaneously with its associations of memory, nostalgia, wonder, and child-like discovery. It was practically brimming over with music, waiting to be given a sonic frame. “When I was eight” wears its heart on its sleeve, with fanciful pianistic flourishes requiring “Craft so dearly bought,” choral sonorities which will benefit from “the pride of small-tuned things,” and quixotic quotations “of Beethoven and Barber and Bach and Brahms.”

I dedicate this work fondly to Robert, whose poetry of ebullient energy and ecstatic enthusiasm I can only hope is faithfully mirrored in my music.

-- Dominick DiOrio, November 2017

When I Was Eight
by Robert Bode (Marrowstone Island, August 2015)
 

Each night I’d mount the stage alone
(a small red rug with fraying trim)
And stand before the Magnavox,
     When I was eight.

I’d move my arms and lunge and leap
            with cheeks aflame,
And ride volcanic waves
Of Beethoven and Barber and Bach and Brahms,
     When I was eight.

I’d join the eagles in their flight
And hear the jackals call;
The stars would shudder in their sockets,
And stallions would flash in the sun!

Today I feel what knowledge brings,
            and Craft, so dearly bought:
The pride of small-tuned things
And the pleasures of the fine.

But oh, I long to feel again
The wonder and the flight:
As when I’d close my eyes,
And lift my arms,
And lead the holy angels
In their Hallelujah song,
                When I was eight.

Commissioned by and dedicated to the Conservatory Singers of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Robert Bode, conductor

It was in Minneapolis for the National ACDA conference in March of 2017 when Robert Bode heard my work, “All Is,” for chorus, mezzo-soprano, viola, and piano. After the reading session, he came up to me immediately, saying: “I want you to set my poetry.” I was flattered and humbled by his response to my music, and I said: “Of course! Send me some poems!” Thus began our collaboration…!

Robert sent me a collection of poems, and this particular text—written on vacation in Marrowstone Island—captured me almost instantaneously with its associations of memory, nostalgia, wonder, and child-like discovery. It was practically brimming over with music, waiting to be given a sonic frame. “When I was eight” wears its heart on its sleeve, with fanciful pianistic flourishes requiring “Craft so dearly bought,” choral sonorities which will benefit from “the pride of small-tuned things,” and quixotic quotations “of Beethoven and Barber and Bach and Brahms.”

I dedicate this work fondly to Robert, whose poetry of ebullient energy and ecstatic enthusiasm I can only hope is faithfully mirrored in my music.

-- Dominick DiOrio, November 2017

When I Was Eight
by Robert Bode (Marrowstone Island, August 2015)
 

Each night I’d mount the stage alone
(a small red rug with fraying trim)
And stand before the Magnavox,
     When I was eight.

I’d move my arms and lunge and leap
            with cheeks aflame,
And ride volcanic waves
Of Beethoven and Barber and Bach and Brahms,
     When I was eight.

I’d join the eagles in their flight
And hear the jackals call;
The stars would shudder in their sockets,
And stallions would flash in the sun!

Today I feel what knowledge brings,
            and Craft, so dearly bought:
The pride of small-tuned things
And the pleasures of the fine.

But oh, I long to feel again
The wonder and the flight:
As when I’d close my eyes,
And lift my arms,
And lead the holy angels
In their Hallelujah song,
                When I was eight.