Description
The composer writes: The poem “Out Of My Deeper Heart” is from Kahlil Gibran’s 1920 collection, The Forerunner. In this poem, the author seems to question the capacity of humans to fully understand the universe because we are completely enveloped in the world we inhabit. Only by stepping outside of our world and looking into our “deeper hearts” can we achieve the perspective needed to know what is true and real.
I was drawn to this text (which I have abridged for this setting) by the image of the rising bird, represented by the solo cello. The florid cello part is contrasted with a simpler, chorale-like texture in many of the choir’s passages.