AFTERNOON ON A HILL for Soprano, Violin, and Viola (2025)

AFTERNOON ON A HILL is a brief, uncomplicated, modal setting of the poem of the same name by Edna St. Vincent Millay scored for soprano, violin, and viola. It features the major and minor second as the predominant-sounding interval, more so in the accompaniment, but also in the melodic lines of the voice, and of the two string parts. Those melodic lines are more linear than they are intervallic, intervallic leaps being more so prevalent in the accompaniment. Timing in at 2:25, I hope you enjoy this pretty little song.

AFTERNOON ON A HILL

I will be the gladdest thing

    Under the sun!

I will touch a hundred flowers

    And not pick one.

I will look at cliffs and clouds

    With quiet eyes,

Watch the wind bow down the grass,

    And the grass rise.

And when lights begin to show

    Up from the town,

I will mark which must be mine,

    And then start down!

—Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950)

This poem is in the Public Domain.

The sheet music is available for licensing from me, and for sale from Sheet Music Plus.

Link to a scrolling score music video on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/K0OYYzxWWig