An Arc of Love

Spotify

CD available
Stations
Australian Contemporary Chorale, Hildy Essex (cond.)
ACC001

score available from
Wise Music

program note
Wedding Frames is a poem written by Ross Baglin as a civil ceremony reading for my wedding to Marianne Rothschild in 2003. The poem concludes with the line ‘Forever in an arc of love’ which forms a repeated musical refrain and thus forms the title of this work. I set it for a cappella choir (SATB) as a companion piece to One Day, written a couple of years earlier. It was written for the Australian Contemporary Chorale, conducted by Hildy Essex and received its official first performance at Trinity College Chapel, on 14 September 2006.

text
Wedding Frames
for Stu and Marianne, Oct 10 2003

In frames across a favourite shelf, the leaves
Of photographic plate reveal the life ;
A glance may sequence what time took an age
To tell ; here is the cradle after the birth,
There joy on a swing, some trusted hand
Propelling your discovery
Of our bird-like wish to fly and be free ;

And so, let incidental hands applaud
Today the union of promises, free hearts
Encircled with intent and imaged now
In pure words that compose a vow –
Such words as “you”, and “please” and “yes”
Our selves must reach for, when they bless.

Photos will fade, and promises,
Like children, grow up hard to please
When actions roar, and words
Resigned to interruption, stand aside –
Yet when all’s quiet, may what’s pledged
In ceremony’s hand remain enough
To hold the swing in check, or make it move
Forever in an arc of love.