While best known for her 1847 novel "Wuthering Heights," Emily Brontë (1818-1848) was also a prolific poet. In her short and notably bleak life, she wrote over one hundred poems, many of which were published posthumously. Three of her shorter poems – “She dried her tears, and they did smile,” “All hushed and still within the house,” and “Fall, leaves, fall” – form this short song cycle that explores varying categories of grief. 

“She dried her tears, and they did smile”
She dried her tears, and they did smile
To see her cheeks’ returning glow;
Nor did discern how all the while
That full heart throbbed to overflow.
With that sweet look and lively tone,
And bright eye shining all the day,
They could not guess, at midnight lone
How she would weep the time away.


“All hushed and still within the house”

All hushed and still within the house;
Without – all wind and driving rain;
But something whispers to my mind,
Through rain and through the wailing wind,
Never again.
Never again? Why not again?
Memory has power as real as thine.


“Fall, leaves, fall”

Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night’s decay
Ushers in a drearier day.


Soprano: Annabelle Babbit
Piano: Rory Wilson

She dried her tears, and they did smile

my piece for reed quintet "trivia night" 
performed by Splinter Reeds

trivia night

Sailor Song (Spanish Ladies)

a piece for orchestra by Rory Wilson

performed live by the Boston Conservatory at Berklee New Music Festival Orchestra (cond. Vimbayi Kaziboni)on February 10th, 2023

Sailor Song (Spanish Ladies)

an original composition for viola and piano

Viola - Andrew Gretzinger
Piano - Rory Wilson

among the pear blossoms

Text by Christina Rossetti

Soprano 1: Violet Joy Hansen
Soprano 2: Karen Wemhoener
Alto 1: Merced Stratton
Alto 2: Anissa Perona

Come to me in the silence of the night;
   Come in the speaking silence of a dream;
Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright
   As sunlight on a stream;
      Come back in tears,
O memory, hope, love of finished years.

Oh dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet,
   Whose wakening should have been in Paradise,
Where souls brimfull of love abide and meet;
   Where thirsting longing eyes
      Watch the slow door
That opening, letting in, lets out no more.

Yet come to me in dreams, that I may live
   My very life again tho’ cold in death:
Come back to me in dreams, that I may give
   Pulse for pulse, breath for breath:
      Speak low, lean low,
As long ago, my love, how long ago.

Echo

I have always what Shakespeare's "Sonnet 12" would be like if it were only 3 lines long and entirely incomprehensible. This piece is a sonic realisation of this intrusive thought.

Performed by Loadbang at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee on September 29, 2023.

sonnet twelve [BROKEN]

performed by Chloe Smith at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee on December 4, 2023.

obsessions

commissioned by Merced Stratton for the recital "Through Wild Eyes: songs on the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay"

performed live at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee on March 12, 2024

figs from thistles (after Edna St. Vincent Millay)

soprano: Molly McDonough
piano: Grigori Balasanyan 

recorded live at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee on April 26, 2024

remembrance (after Emily Brontë)

text: Charlotte Mew
conductor: Edith Mora Hernandez
soprano soloist: Molly McDonough

recorded live at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee on April 26, 2024

Ken (after Charlotte Mew)

composer of vocal and instrument music
based in East London
alum of The Boston Conservatory at Berklee

Rory Wilson

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