Proposition No. 7

Icarus Vocal Ensemble

Chi Hoe Mak conductor

Text

Though Spirits are determined by each other

they cannot completely lose their freedom.

Every possible statement or perception contains both terms —

the self and that which is perceived.

1. -William Butler Yeats
   

Program Note

Yeats never published his Seven Propositions; he wrote them in his notebook in 1929, sharing them only with his wife and close friends. Until recently, they were thought to have been written considerably later, as Yeats apparently did not show them to anyone until about 1937 — only two years before his death — while he was revising his book of occult philosophy, A Vision. That, along with the enigmatic nature of the texts, has fueled a kind of fantastical view of the Propositions as the culmination and summary of Yeats’ worldview. While that may be a stretch, the otherworldly and somehow haunted beauty of the verses are undeniable. In setting the final Proposition, I have tried to keep intact the tone of the work: the abstract, yet ethereal.

For the text and background information, I am indebted to Neil Mann’s excellent overview: http://www.yeatsvision.com/7Propositions.html