Composer: Christopher J. HohDetailsFormat: Mixed Choir - 4 voicesVoicing: SATBIncidental Divisi: S, A, T, BAccompaniment: unaccompaniedNotation: standardPerformance Length: 5:30 Study Scores & Audio FilesStudy Score & Audio Order Printed ScoresOrder site / Alternate source of score: JWPepper.com Texts & TranslationsLanguage(s): EnglishText Source: William Shakespeare (Sonnet 130)Text: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips' red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damask'd, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound; I grant I never saw a goddess go; My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground: And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare. (Compare my mistress — My mistress' cheeks, her breath that reeks, her wiry hair; By heaven above I think my love is rare.) Final three lines above added by the composer. Programming AidsPerformance Difficulty: difficultDescriptive Terms: funfunnyshowpiecelovespoofAllow Excerpts: Composition is a single movementComposer’s Notes: "My Mistress' Eyes" is a fun and funny choral showpiece. It begins, like Shakespeare's sonnet and like many of the poems he spoofs, with elated contemplation of the lady-love's visage. Big, sustained, repeated chords wallow in images of her eyes. But then the music takes an unexpected turn, as does the text. In the first verse sopranos and altos describe her features against a steady, almost obsessive accompaniment from tenor and basses. The roles reverse for the second part of this verse. And these descriptions are certainly not typical paeans to beauty! The second verse changes, offering lyrical lines and pretty music for pictures of roses, etc. before the harmony and words run into a surprise cadence. The third verse begins like the first, but turns rhapsodic to hymn "a goddess" with imitative entrances (technically a little stretto). The final section, which comes to a happy ending, echoes the introduction, building on the word "compare" and leading to lines I brazenly added. With these, the chorus recalls features of the inamorata and closes proclaiming love so rare. This composition was commissioned for a June 2014 Shakespeare concert by the ensemble Meistersingers of Orange County, California, Brian Dehn, founder and artistic director. Additional InformationDate of Completion: December, 2013Date of First Performance: Saturday, June 21, 2014Premier Performance Data: Meistersingers (Brian Dehn, cond), Tustin, CaliforniaAdditional Performances: July 9, 2018: Malvern, PA; recording for CD by The Crossing, Donald Nally, conductor
