Reminiscence

Program Notes

Reminiscence 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).

Composer’s Corner

The Poem

One of the very enjoyable aspects of composing choral and vocal music is coming across poetry that sparks an emotional response. My job then becomes understanding how the poem functions—how it uses imagery, plot, and structure to build its own world—and to breathe musical life into these elements.

Reminiscence of Mahomed Akram was one such poem about love lost, how beautiful things once shared become sources of pain and despair. The final lyric and original poem are available in the Text tab for comparison.

My lyric distills the poem to its essential imagery and plot. For example, I chose to eliminate the scene of the banquet for several reasons:

1. To solidify the progression of time (implied daylight with the flowers, sunset, and finally stars at night), since banquets don’t necessarily start after sunset;
2. Make the plot and setting more timeless (I suspect the last banquet I attended was nothing like the Nicolson is writing about, unless they had Holiday Inns back then…);
3. Without the banquet, the text is about only two people, simplifying the cast and the plot;
4. These changes also lessen the overtness of the romantic aspects of the poem, allowing the emotional sentiments to resonate with the loss of any loved one.

For similar reasons, I shortened the title down to “Reminiscence”. Of course, there are some really nice lines in what I cut, but I think overall, the effect is a more distilled poem with tighter form and more vivid emotion, and better suited to setting to music.

Although there is an overt plot (daytime with flowers, sunset waving goodbye, lamenting the stars by night), what interests me the most is the emotional journey, and this trajectory is what I develop musically.

The Music

The Opening, ms. 1 (0:00) – ms. 17 (0:52). What strikes me about the poem is the dichotomy set up between the pleasant memories of the writer’s beloved and the pain caused by these memories. This dichotomy is illustrated musically: the opening theme (through ms. 17 or 0:50) reflects the emotions of tender memories—perhaps poignant but definitely not sad. Towards the end (ms. 15, about 0:40), a very slightly ominous tone is added. After a brief pause, the next theme enters (ms. 19), based on open fifths—a very “empty” feeling figure—reflecting the present despair of the poet, as if waking up from a happy reverie, jolted back to the harsh realities of the present. The start of this theme signifies the beginning of the narrative—the poet is now back in the present.

First Section, ms. 19 (0:52 before “I shall never forget you…”) – ms. 63 (approximately 2:25 “…lay in your hair”). Through this section, the piano alternates between the stark open voicing that rhythmically plods along (illustrating the daze that the poet finds life to be) with more active figures (e.g. starting at ms. 36 / 1:26 “…escape you”) that show the inner turmoil that the poet is trying to suppress. This pattern repeats until the remembrance forcibly takes over at ms. 46 (1:50 “…on sweet fragrant flowers”), and the choir sings the opening tender theme a cappella. Eventually, this happy remembrance yields again to despair as the piano reenters at ms. 57 (2:08 “flowers I used to love and lay in your hair”), and musically (and emotionally) we leave this section just as we started it.

Second Section, ms. 63 (2:22 before “Sunset is terribly sad”) – ms. 96 (3:32 “I cannot forget you”). This section mimics the first, but with important emotional developments. The first hint of something going wrong is the different treatment of “farewell” at ms. 77 (2:58), versus the treatment of “escape you” at ms. 35 (1:26), the parallel from the first section. This new treatment keeps building and building until the angry outburst of “Since that day, the sunset’s red is empty” at ms. 82 (3:03). The music briefly pauses, the narrator’s emotional energies temporarily drained. But then the turmoil returns, culminating in the apex of the emotional dilemma “I cannot forget you” at ms. 92 (3:24).

Third Section, ms. 96 (3:31 ”What are the stars to me…”) – ms. 112 (4:03 ”…yet what are the stars to me?”). This section starts with a seething anger and frustration both at the poet’s current situation and towards his beloved, which he sees everywhere, even in the stars. He simply cannot escape.

Denouement, ms 113 (4:03 “…to me?”) – the end. Here we have the crux of the matter spelled out—the narrator is now wholly focused on “look what has happened to me”. For the first time, the lover is not including his beloved in the story. The line “to me” is echoed several times, originally ms. 113 (4:05) then echoed at ms. 115 (4:09) and ms. 117 (4:13). This new reality sinks in where nothing is of interest, and even the stars are “just little lingering sparks”—distant reflections of a no longer named happiness, echoed by the piano as the embers go cold.

Performance Notes

Long phrases requiring advanced breath control, a wide dynamic palette (ppp–ff) with extended crescendos and subito markings, and mixed meter with two metric modulations place Reminiscence at Level 3 (Intermediate). Comfortable ranges and tessituras throughout, combined with clear expressive goals, make this a rewarding festival piece.

Notes for Directors

• Two metric modulations occur at m. 63 (quarter=eighth, halving the tempo) and m. 96 (quarter=quarter). Both require precise ensemble coordination and benefit from targeted rehearsal.
• The tenor solo at m. 119, marked “freely with pathos”, is exposed and rubato. It can be performed by the full tenor section or a smaller subset rather than a single soloist.
• The piece ends on E (vi) rather than resolving to G major—a deliberate expressive choice. The unresolved close should sound intentional, not incomplete.

Rehearsal Resources

The Text