Wellesley Chamber Singers - Augusta Read Thomas: !Hope for SSSAA Choir

An elegant, musical braid of the E.E. Cummings text between the five equally important vocal parts (either SSSAA or TTTBB) starts very delicately on quiet and poetic perfect fifth. Gradually, across its 8 minute duration, the vocal colours and lyric imagery unfold with passionate energy to a radiant and intense climax. This is followed by a peaceful, optimistic coda which brings !HOPE to a still, meditative culmination. Members of the Wellesley College Chamber Singers described the song with these words: �reflective, grounded, ethereal, reminiscent, purposeful at hoe it takes its time to express the poem, suspension of time and place with a contrast of contradiction and movement, glassy, fluid and efflorescent. Commissioned by the Wellesley College Music Department for the Chamber Singers, directed by Dr. Lisa Graham. The world premiere of the SSSAA version took place on October 20th 2017 on the occasion of the dedication of the Cynthia M. Sargent Concert Salon.