O Captain! My Captain! by Andrew Bowling (text by Walt Whitman, 1865)

TTBB piano, duration 5:30-6:00, medium difficulty

 

My setting of this poem is now available for perusal/purchase in the Composition Showcase/Little Marketplace. Though Whitman wrote O Captain as a metaphor for Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, I chose to set the text literally, and therefore it trades off between a rousing sailors' melody and a lamenting chorale section. The accompaniment is rather difficult for the pianist, but the vocal parts are inherently melodic and solidly simple. It was written for and premiered by the Statesmen at Rowan University, a non-auditioned ensemble with a gifted accompanist. I set out to make the piece manageable for less experienced ensembles, but still rewarding for more expert performers.

 

A perusal score is online (the first three pages, unaltered), along with an excellent recording from November 2011 by members of Rowan University's Concert Choir and Contemporary Music Ensemble, under the direction of Dr. Christopher Thomas and accompanied by Ms. Bette Holladay. To acquire scores, performance materials, or anything else, please feel free to contact me either through my ChoralNet profile, my website, or my email: gnilwob29@yahoo.com

 

Many thanks to Jack Senzig and the rest of the team for making the Showcase/Marketplace possible!