Three Processionals

Charles Fussel's Three Processionals for Orchestra.

Three Processionals is drawn from ideas contained in an earlier work by the composer, Voyages, based on the poetry of HartCrane.

'In this work I was interested in connecting Hart Crane's use of sea images as a basic vocabulary for his cycle of love poems with Debussy's orchestral sea poem La Mer. The third processional concludes with adirect quote from Debussy. Hart Crane's poems, in their profound concentrated language, first warn the child that his beautiful and joyous seashore games touch a vast ocean, whose depths are cruel, And in the following poem loveitself is the great force which sweeps over and moves every aspect of life. To survive this 'tidal wedge' is a fearful and exhilarating struggle, and we are frequently 'over-taken' by its power plus the knowledge of ourlimits'. - Charles Fussel