Who Has Seen the Wind? Cover Image

Who Has Seen the Wind?: SSATB Choral Octavo

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Who Has Seen the Wind? Cover Image
Who Has Seen the Wind?: SSATB Choral Octavo

Who Has Seen the Wind?: SSATB Choral Octavo

Words by Christina Rossetti, music by Jay Althouse

Item: 00-45603
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Description
This text-driven setting of Rossetti's treasured poem is top-tier. A well-developed choral interlude sounds like swirling winds with round vowels and captivating harmonies to spare. Most notably, Jay's masterful text painting weaves the sound of the breeze throughout. Artful. Haunting.

Don't just read it, hear it, play along with it, and watch your students grow with it. In MakeMusic Cloud, Who Has Seen the Wind?: SSATB Choral Octavo comes alive with professional accompaniment, adjustable tempo, and built-in practice tools that turn solo practice into real progress.

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Additional Details
Series: Alfred Choral Designs
Publisher: Alfred Music
Page Count: 12
UPC: 038081513423
SKU: 00-45603

More about this title

About the Composer: Jay Althouse

Jay Althouse

Jay Althouse earned degrees in Music Education and Music from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where he later received the Distinguished Alumni award. His career spans both publishing and composition; he spent eight years as a rights and licenses administrator for a major educational music publisher and served on the Executive Board of the Music Publishers Association of America. As a prolific composer, he has more than 800 choral works in print across all difficulty levels, widely performed in English-speaking countries. He holds ASCAP membership and is a regular recipient of the ASCAP Special Award for his standard music compositions.

Beyond choral writing, Althouse has co-created several children's musicals with his wife Sally K. Albrecht, compiled respected vocal solo collections including Folk Songs for Solo Singers, and co-authored influential pedagogical texts such as The Complete Choral Warm-up Book and Accent on Composers. He authored reproducible classroom resources: Ready to Read Music, Sixty Music Quizzes, and One-Page Composer Bios. His choral work I Hear America Singing, co-written with Albrecht, was performed by the San Francisco Girls and Boys Choirs at President Barack Obama's 2009 Inauguration. Althouse resides in North Carolina and serves on the National Advisory Board of the Folk Art Society of America.

Why we love this

Althouse's gift for text painting transforms Rossetti's beloved poem into a sonic experience rather than a simple musical setting. The interlude alone justifies programming this piece; its swirling harmonic movement and carefully shaped vowels create an almost physical sense of wind moving through space, giving singers and audiences alike something genuinely memorable to engage with.

What to expect

Haunting and introspective, with moments of luminous beauty. The piece captures the ephemeral quality of Rossetti's poem through carefully crafted harmonies and a choral interlude that genuinely evokes the sensation of invisible wind moving past you.

Who it's for

Advanced high school and college choirs seeking a concert or festival piece with real literary substance. Althouse writes idiomatically for mixed voices at this level, balancing accessibility with genuine artistic ambition.

How to get the most out of it

  • Shape the choral interlude with attention to vowel consistency across all four parts. The illusion of swirling winds depends on unified tone color and steady breath support, not dramatic dynamic shifts.
  • Study Althouse's text painting cues closely in rehearsal and mark where the music literally mirrors the poem's imagery. Ask singers to visualize these moments rather than just reading notes.
  • Balance the SSATB voicing carefully so the soprano divisi doesn't overshadow the alto section during sustained harmonic moments. The interlude's effectiveness relies on blend across all voices.
  • Allow time for the piece to breathe between sections. Althouse's compositional pacing is deliberate; rushing undermines the haunting quality the text and music build together.

How to use it

Pair this with other text-driven secular works to build a thematic concert around poetry and nature. Its 12-page length and reflective character make it ideal as a centerpiece that allows audiences to settle into focused listening, or as a sophisticated closing piece that leaves room for contemplation.

Skills your students will build

  • Text painting and interpretive singing from written musical cues
  • SSATB blend and balance, particularly with soprano divisi
  • Sustained phrase singing with proper breath support across longer lines
  • Harmonic awareness in moving part writing
  • Choral diction and vowel unification in exposed passages

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