Wallflower
SSAA chorus (a cappella) | 3’
Wallflower is a playful setting of a charming poem of the same name by 19th-century queer British Jewish poet, Amy Levy. In it, the lovelorn poet describes her emotions watching a woman dance with other men. She fantasizes about an alternate reality in which she too can dance with the woman - expressed musically by an otherworldly waltz - and frets that she is unable to dance with the object of her desire in this world. This quasi-barbershop setting is setting for Levy’s lighthearted yet sentimental poem about longing for love.
A Wall Flower
I lounge in the doorway and languish in vain While Tom, Dick and Harry are dancing with Jane
My spirit rises to the music's beat;
There is a leaden fiend lurks in my feet!
To move unto your motion, Love, were sweet.
Somewhere, I think, some other where, not here, In other ages, on another sphere,
I danced with you, and you with me, my dear.
In perfect motion did our bodies sway, To perfect music that was heard alway; Woe's me, that am so dull of foot to-day!
To move unto your motion, Love, were sweet; My spirit rises to the music's beat—
But, ah, the leaden demon in my feet!
-Amy Levy (1861-1889)
Commission
Accord Treble Choir; Liz Geisewite, Artistic Director
Performances
Accord Treble Choir
21V
