Dominick DiOrio

The Soul's Passing

• Instrumentation: SATB (divisi) a cappella
• Completed: January 2006
• Duration: 5 minutes
• Texts: Walt Whitman (1819-1892), from Leaves of Grass
• Audio:
  • The Soul's Passing (premiere performance)
    
    Florida State University Singers
    

    Kevin Fenton, conductor; from the 2007 ACDA National Convention in Miami

• Published:

  The Lorenz Corporation: Click to peruse the score / purchase.

• Prize:

  Winner of the 2006 ACDA Raymond W. Brock Memorial Student Composition Prize

• Program Note:

  Winner of the 2006 Raymond W. Brock Memorial Student Composition Prize and performed at the 2007 ACDA National Convention in Miami, FL by the University Singers of Florida State University, Kevin Fenton, conductor. This is a wonderful concert selection for the best of college choirs as well as professional choirs. The harmonic writing is accessible but the ranges and dynamics are extended and best suited for advanced singers.

  When I wrote The Soul's Passing, I wanted to create a piece that gave musical voice to some of the most evocative texts of Whitman that I had read. The poet here writes prose of deep longing for catharsis and culmination, and after that for rest and for peace... "This is thy hour, O Soul!"

• Performances:
  • March 7, 2007 (Premiere - three performances)
    ACDA National Convention
    Florida State University Singers
    Kevin Fenton, conductor
    Jackie Gleason Theater & Carnival Center for the Performing Arts - Miami, FL
  • April 9, 2007
    Florida State University Singers
    Kevin Fenton, conductor
    Florida State University - Opperman Music Hall - Tallahassee, FL
  • April 10, 2007
    Florida State University Singers
    Kevin Fenton, conductor
    Florida State University - Opperman Music Hall - Tallahassee, FL
  • February 23, 2012
    "Ordinary-Extraordinary: Divergence Vocal Theater Residency"
    Lone Star College-Montgomery Chamber Singers 
    Dominick DiOrio, conductor
    Lone Star College-Montgomery - Recital Hall - Conroe, TX