August 4, 2002, St. John's Church, Elora, Ontario
Elora Festival Singers Elora Festival
Conductor: Noel Edison
Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem "In teifen Nächten" appears in a set entitled 'Das Stunden-Buch' (The Book of Hours), which the poet deemed not only the beginning of his authentic expression but also a collection of personal prayers. In this particular poem Rilke speaks of a matchless, numinous beauty which he can sense but labours to attain, a state of grace he attempts to experience through relationship – relationship with the heart of the universe as well as with the natural world. The 'holy' is intimately rooted in the human body, in nature and in the intimations of the divine in the world.
When setting this poem, I attempted to faithfully put to music, as best I could, purely what Rilke has described – his images, his search and his deep understanding of both the physical and spiritual worlds.