Exultation Is The Going by jeremythurlow

These haunting words by Emily Dickinson vividly convey the exhilaration of a great challenge, and at the same time, courage in the face of the unknown, and mortality. I chose to set them for voices, unaccompanied, opening up the tiny, self-contained form of the original poem (two short stanzas) by combining it with verses from two other poems. In writing the music I have tried to evoke both the changing moods of a real seascape and something of the poetry’s emotional charge. The piece is dedicated to the memory of Jo Campling.