Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Paradise: In A Dream, Jonathan Beresford Horrocks

LSU Master's Theses

Paradise: In a Dream is a poem by Christina Rossetti, which is based on a dream the author had of heaven. It was my goal to give this masterpiece a musical dimension: expanding its meaning and giving the experience dramatic implications. The harmonic language and tensions come from the words of the poem. I used progressive tonality to tie the twentieth-century musical element to the romantic idiom of the poem. There are two important musical themes. The “song of Paradise” theme is Schubertian and dance-like, appearing for the first time before the second verse (meas. 32). The theme of earthly …