"Divine" by Joseph Dillon Ford (music) and Henry Stevens (lyrics)
The Three Poems by Henry Stevens were composed in the same order as they appear in the final score during a period beginning in late June 2008 and lasting until 20 August of the same year. Ford intended them as a gift for the poet, whom he had befriended through correspondence on a Unitarian-Universalist mailing list about Buddhism. Stevens had previously commissioned Ford to compose the score for his poetry DVD titled Victory (2005), and thereafter continued to show his support of new art music as a member of the Delian Society's Order of the Cynthian Palm.
"Divine" is a poem about the journey of life and its ending, which may come abruptly and unexpectedly. Stylistically, the song is closely akin to its preceding companions, describing through vivid text painting—and with only fleeting moments of tonal stability—the vicissitudes of mortal existence. The individual, "with grace or gracelessness," seeks enlightenment in the midst of circumstances and events that often yield more questions than answers. Death arrives swiftly and with absolute certainty in the dark key of B minor, as the music fades into nothingness.
The above movie of mummified Pharaoh Seti 1 (640 K) is based on a photgraph now in the public domain:
