About the piece

“In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.”

A challenging work for chamber choir.
This setting of Coleridge’s famous poem “Kubla Khan” is packed with powerful fifth-based harmonies, clusters, augmented triads, and colorful word painting. The music, like the poem, is in two parts – the first is an exhibition of the poem’s fantastical world, and the second is a reflection of that world and an exploration of the clarity and yet transience of dreams and artistic visions.

Honorable Mention for American Prize Choral Professional Division 2015

Listen

Get the Sheet Music

This piece is available to purchase as a digital PDF direct from the composer. Files are delivered instantly via email.

Kubla Khan

$2.50
1 license per ensemble member. 4 licenses minimum.
Add to Cart

Instrumentation

SATBB Chorus

Duration

7 minutes

year written

2011

Sheet Music Format

PDF, 8.5 x 11"

More Works for Choral, SATBB

  • Choral

    Personent Hodie

    SATB chorus with organ and optional handbells

    5 minutes 30 seconds

    Combining medieval aesthetics with modern harmonic sensibilities and growing from chant to polyphonic ecstasy, this arrangement is a grand processional for the Christmas season.

  • Choral

    the truth you cannot see

    SATB chorus

    3 minutes

    The text for  the truth you cannot see is taken from the end of Alfred Bester's novel The Demolished Man. It offers a measure of hope, and a plea for patience and understanding. The complex harmonies serve to underscore how difficult these things are to achieve.