Bright Star

Using text from a sonnet by John Keats, Souza weaves together unique sonic textures by requiring the percussionist to play simultaneously on marimba, vibraphone and glockenspiel.

Program Notes

Bright Star uses text from a sonnet by John Keats:

Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art---
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night,
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature's patient sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priest-like task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors---
No---yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow’d upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake forever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever---or else swoon to death.

The percussionist is required to play simultaneously on marimba, vibraphone and glockenspiel.

Grade Level: 4
Copyright: 2011
Number of Players: 2
Duration: 6:30
Publisher: C. Alan Publications
Type: Duet
Category: Percussion

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Instrumentation

Tenor (or Soprano) Voice
1 Percussionist:
Marimba (5-octave)
Vibraphone (3-octave)
Glockenspiel