INSTRUMENTATION

SATB Chorus a cappella

ABOUT THE PIECE

Setting of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s poem “Oh Could I Raise the Darken’d Veil” in which, if he were given the opportunity, the author chooses not to know his future for fear that he would not be able to bear what he would discover.


(MIDI demo) 
 
Oh could I raise the darken’d veil,
Which hides my future life from me,
Could unborn ages slowly sail,
Before my view—and could I see
My every action painted there,
To cast one look I would not dare.
There poverty and grief might stand,
And dark Despair’s corroding hand,
Would make me seek the lonely tomb
To slumber in its endless gloom.
Then let me never cast a look,
Within Fate’s fix’d mysterious book.