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About the Score

Sara Trevor Teasdale was an American poet known for her poetic lyricism. A Fantasy is part of a collection of poems called Helen of Troy and Other Poems (1911). The complete work was dedicated to a dear friend of Teasdale's, American poet Marion Cummings Stanley.

A Fantasy is an ethereal setting of Teasdale’s poem by the same name for a cappella mixed choir. It starts off with drones, in 5ths, stacked above each other, sung by the men. The women perform echoes of the same motif right above the men's, working to paint the scene of a mystical forest. The piece uses whole tone scales and modal harmony to evoke mysticism and ‘dreaminess.’ It also uses a shapely melodic structure which mirrors the lyricism in Teasdale’s poetry. The poem’s central character, an abstract concept put to life, Quiet, weaves through the forest and goes about her mysterious activities. The climax of the piece happens in a profound proclamation: “Her kisses are the roses that glow while dusk is deep, in Persian garden closes, where Quiet sits and dreams.”

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