The Longfellow Chorus

The Longfellow Chorus A 210th birthday comes only once; why not really celebrate?

The Longfellow Chorus, Portland, Maine, was founded in 2007 to perform musical settings of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poetry. The annual Longfellow Chorus International Composers Competition premieres new Longfellow cantatas, songs and choruses. The Longfellow Chorus is the only performing arts organization in the world to have in its repertory rarely performed Victorian Longfellow cantatas by c

omposers such as Franz Liszt (The Bells of Strasbourg), Arthur Sullivan (The Golden Legend), Edward Elgar (The Saga of King Olaf and The Black Knight), and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (The Song of Hiawatha). 501 (c) (3) Mission statement: "The Corporation shall organize and maintain a chorus to perform and record vocal and choral settings of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poetry, written from 1840 to the present, shall inspire and commission new vocal and choral settings of Longfellow's poetry, and shall perform choral music of the Romantic and immediate post-Romantic eras, ca. 1825-1920."

On October 19, 2025, Sing Omaha will perform my Longfellow choral setting, "The Skeleton in Armor," which is my favorite...
09/25/2025

On October 19, 2025, Sing Omaha will perform my Longfellow choral setting, "The Skeleton in Armor," which is my favorite Longfellow composition, even over "Snow-Flakes." Here's the premiere recording with The Longfellow Chorus, March 2012, First Congregational Church, South Portland. We performed Elgar's wild Longfellow cantata, "Scenes from The Saga of King Olaf," and Arve Tellefsen was guest violin soloist for works by Ole Bull. So, there's a lot of Elgar (and Bull) in the choral voicing of and compositional approach to "Skeleton." The poem actually is autobiographical on Longfellow's part. It fictionalizes his romance with his second wife, Boston's Frances "F***y" Appleton Longfellow, with perhaps an element from his first marriage to Portland's Mary Potter Longfellow, who died in 1835 in the Netherlands after a stillborn birth.

My setting of the Longfellow poem "The Skeleton in Armor," for SATB chorus, flute, oboe/English horn and piano, was premiered at our 2012 Longfellow Choral F...

SCT and Honeysucker Streaming from Galway http://p0.vresp.com/aDJNzL
01/14/2022

SCT and Honeysucker Streaming from Galway http://p0.vresp.com/aDJNzL

Many thanks to Finghin Collins, Artistic Director, and Anna Lardi, Executive Director of Music for Galway who have been supportive of this particular creative filmmaking venture, and without whom That's None of My Business would not exist.

SCT to Galway - Film Festival Laurels http://p0.vresp.com/ls01Pi
12/19/2021

SCT to Galway - Film Festival Laurels http://p0.vresp.com/ls01Pi

The article about the attempt mentioned another student, Nicholas Bosanquet. Through blind luck, I located Dr. Bosanquet in London—Emeritus Professor of Health Policy, Imperial College London—and, via telephone, recorded his narrative of the episode. 

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Portland, ME
04101

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+12072328920

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