Micro Pro Musica Press
San Francisco, California
William Severson Compositions
MPMP01008
A Noiseless Patient Spider
Words by Walt Whitman (1819 — 1892)
Low Voice and Piano
By
William Severson (1941 — )
Version February 01, 2012
$20.00
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© 2007, 2014 Micro Pro Musica Press, San Francisco, California
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A Noiseless Patient Spider
by
Walt Whitman
A noiseless patient spider,
I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.
And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.
Bio of the composer
William Severson at age 8 negotiated piano lessons before informing his parents in a small
mountain town in California, but waited until he was 27 to begin vocal lessons in Hawaii
when singing with the Honolulu Chorale. His vocal lessons were somewhat successful as
he sang 1976-7 season with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, which is a volunteer
professional chorus associated with the Boston Symphony in Massachussetts. His parents
insisted that he have a livelihood so he has a degree in Electrical Engineering from the
University of California at Berkeley, and worked in the computer field for forty years. He
really has not mixed computers with music except to be one of the partners of Micro Pro
Musica Press. It uses computers to engrave music including his own compositions and
arrangements and offer them over the internet. He is performing around the greater Bay
Area with the Golden Age Ensemble. He has had permanent singing gigs in churches in
the San Francisco Bay Area for about 20 years. He started to compose in 1979 and was a
founding member of the Society of Gay and Lesbian Composers [no longer active]. He
has studied composition under Rebeca Mauleon-Santana at CCSF. He has had some
compositions performed at Society of Gay and Lesbian Composers concerts and San
Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra here in the San Francisco Bay Area and by local
choruses. He is a member of the Irregular Resolutions composers group in SF
http://www.micropromusica.com/MPMP.html
© 2007, 2014 Micro Pro Musica Press, San Francisco, California
This work is licensed underthe Crea tive Commons
Attribution-Noncommerical-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/license s/by-nc-sa/3.0/
or send a letter to Creative Commons,
171l Second Street. Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA
3
A Noiseless Patient Spider
Walt Whitman (1819 — 1898)
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http://www.micropromusica.com/MPMP.html
© 2007, 2014 Micro Pro Musica Press, San Francisco, California
This work is licensed underthe Creative Commons
Attribution-Noncommerical-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
or send a letter to Creative Commons,
171l Second Street. Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA
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