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I Felt a Funeral in My Brain        Soprano, piano                                Text by, Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

This setting of Emily Dickinson's (1830-1886) is an atonal arrangement created to depict the chaotic and unsettled nature of the poem. Set for soprano (vocal range C#4 – A5, plus lower sprechstimme) with piano accompaniment.

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
And Mourners to and fro
Kept treading - treading - till it seemed
That Sense was breaking through

And when they all were seated,
A Service, like a Drum
Kept beating - beating - till I thought
My mind was going numb

And then I heard them lift a Box
And creak across my Soul
With those same Boots of Lead, again,
Then Space - began to toll,

As all the Heavens were a Bell,
And Being, but an Ear,
And I, and Silence, some strange Race,
Wrecked, solitary, here

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