“Ye blesséd creatures, I have heard the call

Ye to each other make; I see

The heavens laugh with you in your jubilee;

My heart is at your festival,

My head hath its coronal,

The fullness of your bliss, I feel - I feel it all.”

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-William Wordsworth

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In my piece for vocal quartet and string quartet, TIERLIED/TIERLEID, I reflect on the complex relationship between humans and animals, gently drawing attention to the realities of animal exploitation. The image of the industrial slaughterhouse serves as a symbolic lens through which these experiences are considered, inviting contemplation rather than judgment.

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For the text, I turned to William Wordsworth’s Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood. In this poem, Wordsworth lifts our gaze toward the natural world with a sense of wonder and reverence, offering a space of beauty and reflection that contrasts with, and deepens, the themes explored in the music.

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“Ye blesséd creatures, I have heard the call

Ye to each other make; I see

The heavens laugh with you in your jubilee;

My heart is at your festival,

My head hath its coronal,

The fullness of your bliss, I feel - I feel it all.”

 

The poem also relates the poet’s anxiety as he reflects on his feelings of coming of age, paralleling his loss of wonder with a general idea of loss and decay:

 

“But yet I know, where’re I go,

That there hath past away a glory from the earth”

 

As the poem shifts between episodes of joy and sadness, my piece also moves between song and suffering or Lied and Leid. In this way, I draw the focus not only to the ethical crisis of the “slaughterhouse,” but also to the overwhelming beauty that is manifested in the very existence and breath of each creature. 

 

“My heart is at your festival,

My head hath its coronal,

The fullness of your bliss, I feel - I feel it all.”