The Whole Sea in Motion was written for and premiered by the University of Southern California Chamber Singers (Jo-Michael Scheibe, conductor). This piece sets a prose text from Agnes Grey, a novel by British author Anne Brontë. 

 

The Whole Sea in Motion is published by the G. Schirmer Dale Warland Choral Series.

 

Want to program this piece? Preview the score or purchase The Whole Sea in Motion here.

 

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TEXT

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No language can describe the effect of the deep, clear azure of the sky and ocean, the bright morning sunshine on the semicircular barrier of craggy cliffs surmounted by green swelling hills, and on the smooth, wide sands, and the low rocks out at sea - looking, with their clothing of weeds and moss, like little grass-grown islands - and above all, on the brilliant, sparkling waves. And then, the unspeakable purity - and freshness of the air! …just enough wind to keep the whole sea in motion, to make the waves come bounding to the shore, foaming and sparkling, as if wild with glee. Nothing else was stirring – no living creature was visible besides myself. My footsteps were the first to press the firm, unbroken sands; - nothing before had trampled them since last night’s flowing tide had obliterated the deepest marks of yesterday, and left them fair and even, except where the subsiding water had left behind it the traces of dimpled pools and little running streams.

 

—Anne Brontë (1820-1849)