He’s Come Home Again

Instrumentation high voice and piano

Vocal Range C4 to A5 (or C3 to A4)

Timing ca. 5′

Composed 2013

Poem by Suzanne Steele

Also available for trio of soprano, violoncello and piano

Programme Notes

In 2012, poet Suzanne Steele and composer Jeffrey Ryan collaborated on Afghanistan: Requiem for a Generation, a major oratorio commissioned by the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and One Yellow Rabbit, setting Steele’s original writings as Canada’s war poet in Afghanistan along with fragments of the Latin Requiem Mass. He’s Come Home Again is drawn from the Requiem’s Sanctus movement. As the music marches ceremoniously forward, Steele’s poem observes the repatriation of a soldier’s body, poignantly contrasting images of spring and new life with the realities of life in war and the soldier’s last moments. The final lines reflect the new reality of those left behind, their lives forever changed, the future they imagined now unattainable.

PDF perusal score

Get music

Score $5 print, $3 PDF.
To purchase, please contact me.