Photograph by Scott Ordway (California, 2021)

The Ceiling, the Treetops, the Sky (2018)

Alto, piano / 4 minutes

PREMIERE

Commissioned by Emily Marvosh

Premiere: 29 July, 2018; New England Conservatory (Boston, MA)
Emily Marvosh, contralto

MEDIA

NOTE

This short song is based on a passage from Wings of the Dove (1902) by Henry James. Its short text expresses a sense of longing for the faraway, the immeasurable, the unknown, and the unknowable.

TEXT

by Scott Ordway, after Henry James

The ceiling,
The treetops,
The sky.

To drop what was near,
And to take up what was far.

This short song is based on a passage from Wings of the Dove by Henry James. Its short text expresses a sense of longing for the faraway, the immeasurable, the unknown, and the unknowable.

The Ceiling, the Treetops, the Sky (2018)
Text by Scott Ordway after Henry James

The ceiling,
The treetops,
The sky.

To drop what was near,
And to take up what was far.

Adapted from Henry James, Wings of the Dove (1902)

"It was the accident, possibly, of his long legs, which were apt to stretch themselves; of his straight hair and his well-shaped head, never, the latter, neatly smooth; and apt into the bargain, at the time of quite other calls upon it, to throw itself suddenly back and supported behind by his uplifed arms and interlocked hands, place him for unconcionable periods of time in communion with the ceiling, the treetops, the sky. He was in short visibly absent-minded, irregularly clever, liable to drop what was near and to take up what was far."