SAATB, unaccompanied

NOTE FROM THE COMPOSER

The text is by Fray Luis León  (1527-1591), Spanish lyric poet, Augustinian friar,  theologian, and academic of the Spanish Golden Age.   Noche Serena (“Night Serene”) premiered at the Texas Music Educators Convention; commissioned by Allen High School (Texas).

TEXT

(Spanish, translated to English)
When I contemplate heaven, adorned with countless stars, and [then] I look toward the ground, surrounded by night in dream and buried in oblivion….love and longing awake the passion in my soul…the eyes like founts beyond control, Loarte, and finally say with painful voice, “Oh!” I [realize] I am in a temple of light and beauty…my soul was born to soar…”What it is, what it shall be, and all that was?”