'A Slumber Did my Spirit Seal' arr. Viola Quartet [HD]

A verse of Elliot Corner's New Choral Work, 'A Slumber Did my Spirit Seal' arranged as a Viola Quartet by the composer. The original work is a setting of the poem of the same name by William Wordsworth.

This performance is just an extract of the choir- being the final verse of two.

A Slumber Did my Spirit Seal is dedicated to the late Mr John Forster, one of the most inspirational men I ever had the fortune to meet.

The actual choral work 'A Slumber Did my Spirit Seal' is a setting of a poem written by William Wordsworth. Set to music by Elliot Corner (aged 18), it was performed for the first time by the New Sounds Chamber Choir (Conducted by Oscar Koronka) at All Saints Church, Hove on the 22nd February 2013.

'A slumber did my spirit seal;
I had no human fears:
She seem'd a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.

No motion has she now, no force;
She neither hears nor sees;
Roll'd round in earth's diurnal course
With rocks, and stones, and trees.'

"The music is written in the style of a Four-Part Motet, deliberately with no textural variety or different rhythmic part-writing to give greater weight to the words, which I wanted to be absolutely audible. I was aiming to blend the words and music, using the shape, and the ebb and flow of Wordsworth's beautiful poem to create an indistinguishable merging of the music and literature for the listener's ear."