Paper Boats

SATB div. a cappella
3:50 approx.

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I first encountered the work of Bengali poet, Rabindranath Tagore, singing Silence, My Soul, by Filipino composer, Francisco Feliciano, with the Philippine Madrigal Singers. Tagore’s poetry is lyrical, organic and very attuned to nature. These were probably the factors that appealed most to me as an Asian composer. Tagore was also a polymath, excelling in the fields of visual, aural and spatial arts, making his poems malleable and easily adaptable to musical settings; notwithstanding the fact that Tagore himself was also a musician. This particular setting was written for the 2013 Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium.

Paper Boats is from a children’s poetry set called “Crescent Moon” published in 1913. The piece should be performed with child-like zeal and wonder, making sure that it is light and playful while also ensuring rhythmic accuracy, particularly in the hocketing textures in the middle of the piece.

PAPER BOATS
by Rabindranath Tagore

Day by day I float my paper boats one by one down the running stream.
    In big black letters I write my name on them and the name of
the village where I live.
    I hope that someone in some strange land will find them and
know who I am.
    I load my little boats with shiuli flower from our garden, and
hope that these blooms of the dawn will be carried safely to land
in the night.
    I launch my paper boats and look up into the sky and see the
little clouds setting thee white bulging sails.
    I know not what playmate of mine in the sky sends them down
the air to race with my boats!
    When night comes I bury my face in my arms and dream that my
paper boats float on and on under the midnight stars.
    The fairies of sleep are sailing in them, and the lading ins
their baskets full of dreams.