Golden Stars
F.150
A freely chromatic, un-metered SATB a cappella setting of Nicolson’s poem about love lost. Cut-away scoring and invisible barlines create a continuous, fluid texture where voices emerge and recede as the poet moves from tender memory through passionate outburst to quiet resignation.
Perusal Score
Program Notes
Every once in a while one can find a volume of poetry that renders such vivid images in the mind’s eye… Golden Stars was the first (of now many) Adela Florence Nicolson poems that seem to paint pictures in my head—in this case, a deep, dark but still blue sky with twinkling golden points of light, and an image of a godly hand stringing these golden beads onto a necklace. Or a soft, green bed of grass beneath that sky.
This setting owes its birth to Seattle composer and teacher Bern Herbolsheimer, who challenged me to write a piece with neither meter nor even sense of meter. That freedom from meter is used to tell this story in a very fluid way that gives the performers a great deal of latitude to make the story theirs.
The Lyric
I made several small changes to the original poem—most to increase its lyricism. But in the last stanza, I couldn’t help but translate the narrator’s voice from the medium of the spoken word (“But what is the use of my speech, since I know of no words to recall you?”) to that of music (“But what use is song, since I know neither tune nor words to recall you?”)—a more natural fit for the setting. The final lyric and original poem are available in the Text tab for comparison.
Golden Stars is part of a cycle of choral pieces based on Adela Florence Nicolson’s poetry entitled India’s Love Lyrics, which includes Golden Stars (F. 150), Wistful Wind (F. 152), The Plains (F. 154), Lost Delight (F. 157), Famine Song (F. 164), and Reminiscence (F. 166).
Performance Notes
The un-metered flow (all barlines invisible), freely chromatic harmonic language (no key signature, with accidentals throughout), solo passages marked “freely”, and wide dynamic range (p–ff with extended crescendos and subito drops) place Golden Stars at Level 4 (Advanced).
Notes for Directors
- The score uses cut-away formatting—staves appear and disappear as parts enter and exit. This is intentional and part of the visual presentation.
- The piece is un-metered throughout—barlines are invisible and there are no explicit tempos. Fermatas and breath marks provide the structural breathing points.
- Solo passages in Tenor (top system, page 4; bottom system, page 6) and Bass (top system, page 4) are marked “freely” and can be performed by a small subset rather than a single soloist.
- Bass portamento markings at the end of the top system on page 2 (“port.” and “long port.”) require smooth glides between pitches.
- The dramatic tonal shift from a flat-based harmonic world to a sharp-based one at the climax (“Youth, I would have squandered for your love!”) is the most exposed moment in the score.
Rehearsal Resources
The Text
Golden Stars (as performed)
Golden Stars—
I would have taken golden stars from the sky for your necklace.
Petals from every rose I would have shaken for your rest.
But short sweet grass sufficed;
You took no heed of such trifles as gold.
But short sweet grass sufficed;
And you took no heed of such trifles as a necklace:
Short sweet grass sufficed for your slumber.
There is an hour at twilight too heavy with memory.
There is a flower that I fear, for your hair had its fragrance.
Youth, I would have squandered for your love—
Before you wandered, careless, away from my pointless passion.
O, what use!
But what use is song, since I know neither tune nor words to recall you?
I only pray that Time may teach you your Cruelty, and me, Forgetfulness.
—Adela Florence Nicolson (1865–1904), revisions copyright © 2008 by Fraley Music, Inc.
Original Poem
To the Unattainable: Lament of Mahomed Akram
I would have taken Golden Stars from the sky for your necklace,
I would have shaken rose-leaves for your rest from all the rose-trees.
But you had no need; the short sweet grass sufficed for your slumber,
And you took no heed of such trifles as gold or a necklace.
There is an hour, at twilight, too heavy with memory.
There is a flower that I fear, for your hair had its fragrance.
I would have squandered Youth for you, and its hope and its promise,
Before you wandered, careless, away from the useless passion.
But what is the use of my speech, since I know of no words to recall you?
I am praying that Time may teach, you, your Cruelty, me, Forgetfulness.
—Adela Florence Nicolson (1865–1904) published in India’s Love Lyrics (1902)
About This Recording
Recorded by the Byrd Ensemble on Stories (2017), directed and produced by Markdavin Obenza.