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for SATB Choir

by Aaron Johnson

Lead time before shipping:
2-3 days

The Tyger

Duration: approx. 5 1/2 minutes.

Composed by Aaron Johnson, for SATB Choir. 1 Full Score. Contemporary Classical. 10 pages. 8 1/2 X 11. Booklet. Published by Painted Bird Music.

The Tyger is an a cappella choir setting of William Blake’s poem of the same name which comes from the collection Songs of Innocence. This piece marks the first time in ten years I have composed using a key signature. The decision to do so was not necessarily a conscious pre-compositional choice. After a long and thoughtful period of contemplation, the only way I could hear the text was in a language based on tonality, despite my efforts to hear it otherwise. Perhaps the regularity of the meter, or the sing-songy quality of each stanza, or the memory of reading the poem in my childhood helped to shape my notion of the poem’s musical voice. Whatever the reason, I felt I could only be comfortable setting the poem using the same musical voice it used to speak to me.