My piece is a setting of the poem "Spring in War-Time" by Sara Teasdale (1884-1933), which was written in the early to middle years of World War I. Throughout her powerful text, Sara Teasdale explores the painful juxtaposition of the renewal of spring against the tragic loss of life in a war that never seems to end. Each stanza ends with a rhetorical question, expressing the deep grief of a world torn apart by a brutal war.
My piece musically illustrates each line through the use of word painting and emotional harmony. The harmony of the main theme, which first appears at rehearsal A, is set in a dark and introspective c sharp minor, which represents "a world in grief." Starting at rehearsal E, the line "The grass is waking in the ground" is set to a motive that rises and falls in its melodic shape, representing dormant seeds bursting with energy and life upon the arrival of spring. The same undulating motive is also set to the line: "Soon it will rise and blow in waves." The increasing propulsive motion of this motive and two other motives builds to the climactic final line of that stanza, ending with "New graves?" At the end of each stanza of the poem, the chorus sings a loud, full chord, signifying each piercing question. The last measure of the piece ends on an unresolved chord and represents the tragic unanswerable questions posed throughout the poem.
Spring in War-Time
I feel the spring far off, far off,
The faint, far scent of bud and leaf—
Oh, how can spring take heart to come
To a world in grief,
Deep grief?
The sun turns north, the days grow long,
Later the evening star grows bright—
How can the daylight linger on
For men to fight,
Still fight?
The grass is waking in the ground,
Soon it will rise and blow in waves—
How can it have the heart to sway
Over the graves,
New graves?
Under the boughs where lovers walked
The apple-blooms will shed their breath—
But what of all the lovers now
Parted by Death,
Grey Death?
- Sara Teasdale
Notes copyright Theodore Tavi Hein 2026, All Rights Reserved