A Flower Triptych celebrates the poetic use of flower imagery with choral settings of three English poems. The idea for the series was inspired by William Blake, who in his “Auguries of Innocence,” wrote,

To see a World in a Grain of Sand 

 And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, 

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand                       

And Eternity in an hour.

William Wordsworth echoes similar pious sentiments towards nature in several of his poems. In “Daffodils,” communion with a field of blooming flowers dissipates his loneliness and moves him to a blissful state.

John Keats refers to a “lonely, forlorn, flower reflected in a glassy pool” that symbolizes the ancient story of Narcissus, who failed to recognize Echo’s love for him because of his obsession with his own reflection. “The Narcissus” cites the seventh stanza from Keats’s 1817 poem, “Places of Nestling Green for Poets Made,” subtitled “The Story of Rimini,”dedicated to the Poet Leigh Hunt.

Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The Flowers” transports the speaker back to the innocence of childhood and certainty in the existence of fairies. I have a great reverence for nature and find my own interaction with it both grounding and transcendental. My many retreats to nature provide solace, especially in challenging times. I believe that nature can provide many epiphanies if we only take time to observe and reflect.

The pieces are great, I especially like the Daffodils. Cool tonality and meter changes. The Flowers is a perfect rhythmic setting of the meter of the poem, and the chorus is so catchy. It really feels like nostalgia for childhood. Narcissus aptly has the feel of a Greek chorus, I love the narrative quality. I’m impressed!                                                                       —Rich Langham, choral director at Diamond Bar, California, High School   

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