SATB choir. 3 1/2 mins.
Selection from Sauntering Songs: a concert-length cantata on the theme of walking, commissioned by Skylark Vocal Ensemble.
Perusal Score
Performance score available for purchase. Please direct inquiries to Nell Shaw Cohen at nell@nellshawcohen.com.
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Program NOte
“Street Haunting” is a choral selection from Sauntering Songs: a concert-length cantata on the theme of walking, commissioned by Skylark Vocal Ensemble. The text for this piece comes from a 1927 essay of the same title by Virginia Woolf, who vividly describes the pleasures of exploring and people-watching on the streets of London.
Text
“The hour should be the evening and the season winter, for in winter the champagne brightness of the air and the sociability of the streets are grateful. […] The evening hour, too, gives us the irresponsibility which darkness and lamplight bestow. We are no longer quite ourselves. As we step out of the house on a fine evening between four and six, we shed the self our friends know us by and become part of that vast republican army of anonymous trampers, whose society is so agreeable after the solitude of one’s own room. […] To escape is the greatest of pleasures; street haunting in winter the greatest of adventures.”
From “Street Haunting: A London Adventure” (1927) by Virginia Woolf. Used by permission of The Society of Authors as the Literary Representative of the Estate of Virginia Woolf.
Performance History
Visit the Sauntering Songs page for performance history.