For:

  • 2(I=picc,II=picc,alto)-2(II=CA)-2(II=BC)-2 / 2.2.2.1 / timp.2perc / hp / pf(=synth) / SATB / strings

Year: 1996 / 2024

Duration: 3'

Text: Paul Muldoon (E)

First Performance: 25 January 2025 / Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall, Alexandria, VA / City Choir of Washington, and the National Opera Orchestra / Erin Freeman

Dedication: "For Erin Freeman.”

Listen: Shining Brow (complete opera): iTunes | Naxos | Spotify

Publisher: ECS Publishing

Cover design of the original Shining Brow piano vocal score by Taliesin designer Aris Monkis Georges.

Program Note:

Balm in Gilead, is a fantasia based on Mamah's first act scena and the quintet for cellos that underpin Wright and Sullivan's moment of rapprochment in the second act. The suite draws almost exclusively on material that was assigned to the chorus in the opera. Neither of the two large counterbalancing arias (for Mamah and Wright) are featured, nor are Catherine's (Wright's wife), Edwin's (Mamah's husband), or Louis moments. Hagen extracted the movement from the larger suite, Taliesin: Choruses from Shining Brow, for Erin Freeman and the City Choir of Washington to perform with the National Opera Orchestra in Alexandria, Virginia, on 25 January 2025.