Suite: Night/Dance in the Horizon

a poem in six parts


"Night has come; now all the songs of lovers awaken. And my soul too is the song of a lover."

      -- Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra


This poem was conceived as a dance of words, and its format follows from the format used by J.S. Bach when composing his "Suites for Unaccompanied Cello," specifically the Fifth Suite in C-minor. Each movement of the suite attempts to recollect the rhythms of different Baroque dances popular during Bach's time.

The images accompanying each piece are from a painting by Salvador Dali entitled "Musical Tempest." The poster of this work hangs above my bed, and I've tried to create a story from these images that recalls both the music and the philosophy that inspired me to write this poem.

[A Woman Alone]      I. The Prelude

[Cello Bodies]      II. Summonings

[Piano With Hands]      III. The River Coursing the Moon

[Distorted Ear]      IV. Whirlwind in my Ear

[A Nobleman]      V. Court Gavotte

[The Horizon]      VI. Jig at the End of the Horizon

19 February 1993 -- 6 August 1993
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Sylvia Chong (schong@hooked.net)