Nightpiece

Gaunt in gloom
The pale stars their torches
Enshrouded wave. 
Ghostfires from heaven's far verges faint illume
Arches on soaring arches,
Night's sindark nave. 

Seraphim
The lost hosts awaken
To service till
In moonless gloom each lapses, muted, dim
Raised when she has and shaken
Her thurible. 

And long and loud
To night's nave upsoaring
A starknell tolls
As the bleak incense surges, cloud on cloud,
Voidward from the adoring
Waste of souls.

by James Joyce (1882-1941) , "Nightpiece", from Pomes Penyeach, no. 9

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

by George Antheil (1900-1959) , "Nightpiece", published 1933 [voice and piano], from The Joyce Book, no. 9.
by David Del Tredici (1937-) , "Nightpiece", 1966 [soprano, chimes, horn and orchestra], from Syzygy, no. 2.
by Geert van Keulen (1943-) , "Nightpiece", 1943, rev. 1984, from Trieste, no. 3.
by Michael Murray , "Nightpiece", 2004 [soprano, horn, and piano], from The Wild Winds Weep, no. 2.

FRE French (Guy Laffaille)

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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Classical Vocal Repertoire