"Haunted Houses"

Original composition for SATB choir (w/divisi) & piano by Clark William Lawlor

J.W. Pepper Editor's Choice (Spring 2024)

Text adapted from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Haunted Houses"

Elevate your next spooky concert with this thrilling new selection for mixed choirs! This original work effortlessly floats from eerie, shadowy melodies to a quasi-ragtime adventure through Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Victorian-era poem "Haunted Houses." Don't miss this spine-tingling musical experience for your choir, perfect for Halloween or any time during the concert season.

Sheet music available now!

https://www.endeavormusicpublishing.c...

Or at J.W. Pepper

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Recorded by members of the Santos Chamber Singers, Matthew Paez, director, with Jared Pierce, piano.

Text:

All houses wherein men have lived and died

Are haunted houses. Through the open doors

The harmless phantoms on their errands glide,

With feet that make no sound upon the floors.

We meet them at the doorway, on the stair,

Impalpable impressions on the air,

Along the passages they come and go,

A sense of something moving to and fro.

There are more guests at the table than the hosts

Invited; the illuminated hall

Is thronged with quiet, inoffensive ghosts,

As silent as the pictures on the wall.

The stranger at my fireside cannot see

The forms I see, nor hear the sounds I hear;

But unto me all that has been

Is visible and clear.

The spirit-world around this world of sense

Wafts through these earthly mists and vapours dense,

Floats like an atmosphere, and everywhere,

A vital breath of more ethereal air.

And from the world of spirits there descends,

O'er this unsteady floor, that sways and bends,

A bridge of light, connecting it with this,

Wander our thoughts above the dark abyss.

All houses wherein men have lived and died

Are haunted houses!

- Adapted from "Haunted Houses"

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882)