Jason Abel approached me to write a piece for George Washington’s historic church in Virginia amidst a global pandemic, and world-wide riots incited by the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. Recognizing the need to find the right voice for a piece of church music produced during this unprecedented time of upheaval and uncertainty, I searched for a poem that might balance the great weight of history in this parish.

I found Phillis Wheatley, the first American woman, and the first African-American, to publish original poetry. Her collection, published in 1772, reflects her education in Classical literature which she read in the original Greek and Latin, and her in-depth understanding of the English neoclassical style epitomized by Alexander Pope and John Milton. She met George Washington, dined with him, and wrote a poem for him in 1776 extolling the noble cause of freedom. Her poetry was praised in France by Voltaire, and championed in Britain by the Countess of Huntingdon.

Wheatley’s ‘An Hymn to the Evening’ is a vivid description of nature, as the Sun runs its course through the sky during the day, and the seasons spin their cycle through the year. Her poem is a moving metaphor for the cycle of human life, and though ‘night’s leaden sceptre’ may close our eyes, there is the promise of a re-birth, and a new day. The present choral anthem endeavours to illustrate Wheatley’s wonderful words. I have attempted to exploit the colouric potential of the new organ to be installed in the church, and the expressive qualities of the parish’s well-trained choir. The opening reflects Wheatley’s poetic description of the sunrise. Later on, a solo voice, intended to be physically distant from the main choir, might be considered a musical representation of the voice of the poet, an embodied echo from some imagined past, while the choir sings this most sacred text: the temple of God dwells in every human being.

Stephanie Martin, composer, September 2020