Choral SA choir and piano
SKU: CF.CM9707
Composed by Austin Hunt.
8 pages. Duration 3
minutes, 19 seconds. Carl
Fischer Music #CM9707.
Published by Carl Fischer
Music (CF.CM9707).
ISBN 9781491160121.
UPC: 680160918720. Key:
Db major. John Gillespie
Magee. Poem by John
Gillespie Magee,
Jr.
Just weeks
after his nineteenth
birthday, John Gillespie
Magee, Jr. wrote the poem
High Flight while serving
in the Royal Canadian Air
Force. The year was 1941,
and World War II was
culminating toward its
darkest chapters. Magee
had just completed his
seventh flight in the
iconic Spitfire Mk I
fighter plane, soaring to
heights well above 30,000
feet. These high altitude
exercises supplied his
inspiration for the poem,
which describes the long,
delirious, burning blue
and having touched the
face of God. Tragically,
Magee died in a training
exercise just months
after writing High
Flight. His words,
however, live on to lift
our hearts and stir the
imagination. After you
have learned High Flight,
ask yourself the
following questions: Are
you singing the text
clearly and articulately?
Are you properly
stressing the important
syllables and backing off
of non-stressed
syllables? Is there a
sense of energy
throughout the piece, in
both the lyrical, flowing
sections and the
up-tempo, faster
sections? Are you also
singing with a sense of
energy no matter what the
dynamic marking? Are you
singing phrases with
proper breath support and
a sense of rise and fall
to the phrase?.
Just
weeks after his
nineteenth birthday, John
Gillespie Magee, Jr.
wrote the poem High
Flight while serving
in the Royal Canadian Air
Force. The year was 1941,
and World War II was
culminating toward its
darkest
chapters. Magee had
just completed his
seventh flight in the
iconic Spitfire Mk
IÂ fighter plane,
soaring to heights well
above 30,000 feet. These
high altitude exercises
supplied
his inspiration for
the poem, which describes
“the long,
delirious, burning
blue†and having
“touched the face
of God.â€Tragically,
Magee died in a training
exercise just months
after writing High
Flight. His words,
however, live on to lift
our hearts and stir the
imagination. After you
have learned High Flight,
ask yourself the
following questions: Are
you singing the text
clearly and articulately?
Are you properly
stressing the important
syllables and backing off
of non-stressed
syllables? Is there a
sense of energy
throughout the piece, in
both the lyrical, flowing
sections and the
up-tempo, faster
sections? Are you also
singing with a sense of
energy no matter what the
dynamic marking? Are you
singing phrases with
proper breath support and
a sense of rise and fall
to the phrase?
Altitude
