AH, MOON OF MY DELIGHT!
for SATB divisi a cappella
Music by: Hirad Moradi
Text by: Omar Khayyam, trans. Edward Fitzgerald
Commissioned and premiered by Modern Sound Collective in 2022.
Roaming through gorgeously haunted nocturnal soundscapes and setting the poetry of medieval Persian polymath Omar Khayyam, Hirad Moradi’s Ah, Moon of My Delight! depicts the human obsession with love and our fears of mortality.
$3.00
VIEW PERUSAL SCORE:
MSC0015 – Ah, Moon of My Delight! – SCORE PERUSAL PDF
PROGRAM NOTE:
Ah, Moon of My Delight! depicts the human obsession with love and the inevitable mortality of all living things. We often see the moon as a symbol of uncertainty and cyclical change, and that is absolutely its role here. Throughout the piece, expressions of love are repeatedly made towards the moon but left without reciprocation. The music wanders through different worlds which depict a deep emptiness and instability within, to reflect this unanswered desire. Drones in the low end and echoing voices create mysterious soundscapes, as tensions rise throughout the piece. The music reaches its darkest point near the end and begins to fall apart in a desperate attempt at finding an answer, before finally arriving at a point of complete acceptance and solace. In the words of author Ivan Granger, “the individual self – the little self or the ego – disappears in the light of illumination. The moon rises, it shines, but there is no “you” to be found within that light.”
