Crossing the bar

Crossing the bar for string orchestra is a reflection on Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem of the same title. I remember, as a young teenager, being deeply moved by my first encounter with it. The metaphor comparing crossing the bar between land and sea to one's life journey between birth and death remains for me a powerful existential affirmation. I am hoping, as many others do, that at my last earthly breath there will only be peace, contentment, and gratitude.

My setting begins with sliding notes forming an aural backdrop of gentle lapping ripples. The lower strings suggest the "sunset and evening star." The upper strings soon announce the "one clear call."

As the work unfolds all strings join as the "moving tide." The soothing melodic "call" crescendos to a full, soaring tutti as it "crosses the bar" and then disappears with the "tide." The work closes sounding the first notes of the "call," faintly echoed by the community of others who heeded the "call" and "crossed the bar" before us.