It Sounded as if the Streets Were Running Cover Image

It Sounded as if the Streets Were Running: Choral Octavo

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It Sounded as if the Streets Were Running Cover Image
It Sounded as if the Streets Were Running: Choral Octavo

It Sounded as if the Streets Were Running: Choral Octavo

By Jonathan Dove

Item: 98-EP7896
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Description

The composer says of setting Emily Dickinson's poetry:

"One reason I am repeatedly drawn to set the poems of Emily Dickinson to music is that hardly any of them were known, let alone spoken aloud or sung, during her lifetime.

When she died, in 1886, an enormous number of poems were discovered (there are 1,775 in total). Some of them were published over the next ten years; many more were hidden away again for another thirty years.

The thought of these powerful words being unseen and unheard for so long makes me want to hear them sung as often as possible!

Dickinson's work also invites singing because her language is so simple and economical, and yet contains wonders: seeing the world through her eyes, we watch the unfolding of vast, cosmic dramas."

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Additional Details
Series: Edition Peters
Publisher: Edition Peters
Page Count: 44
ISBN10: 0-57-708750-9
ISBN13: 979-0-57-708750-4
SKU: 98-EP7896

More about this title

About the Composer: Jonathan Dove

Jonathan Dove is a British composer whose choral and operatic works have become central to contemporary music-making in schools and professional ensembles alike. His gift for matching music to poetry lies in his ability to honor a text's emotional truth while creating vocal lines that feel both natural and singable, making him a go-to voice for directors seeking meaningful contemporary repertoire.

Dove's deep engagement with Dickinson's work reflects his broader philosophy: that the act of singing dormant or overlooked texts brings them to life in ways reading alone cannot. His settings consistently demonstrate why poets matter to musicians and why musicians matter to poets.

Why we love this

Dove's decision to set Dickinson speaks to something every choral director understands: the power of giving voice to words that have been waiting. The fact that the composer himself articulates this mission means singers will sense the intentionality behind every phrase. You're not just teaching a piece; you're teaching why it exists.

What to expect

Spare and luminous, with the quality of overhearing private thoughts made suddenly public. The music respects the intimacy of Dickinson's voice while allowing her images to expand into full emotional dimensions. You'll hear both restraint and depth.

Who it's for

This collection works for experienced high school choirs, community choirs with strong sight-reading skills, and collegiate ensembles. Dickinson's complexity paired with Dove's compositional sophistication calls for singers who can handle interpretive nuance alongside musical accuracy.

How to get the most out of it

  • Treat Dickinson's punctuation and line breaks as structural guides rather than grammatical artifacts. They create natural breathing points and affect how you shape phrases, so experiment with honoring her stanza divisions even when modern syntax might suggest otherwise.
  • The scale and scope of the piece (44 pages) likely contains distinct movements or sections. Identify these early and rehearse them as self-contained units before integrating the whole, so singers understand the arc rather than drowning in continuity.
  • Balance clarity of text with melodic shape. Dove's settings value simplicity, which means diction becomes the primary carrier of meaning. Precision in consonants and vowel consistency will reveal the music's elegance.

How to use it

Frame this as a concert centerpiece or as part of a program exploring American poetry in music. The scale and substance make it suitable for a full concert devoted to Dove's settings, or it can anchor a mixed program of contemporary choral work where its thoughtfulness will elevate everything around it.

Skills your students will build

  • Interpretive choices based on poetic text and punctuation
  • Sustained legit singing over extended phrase structures
  • Balancing musical coherence with textual clarity in contemporary idioms
  • Understanding how composers approach canonical literature

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