Canis Major

for unaccompanied TTBB quartet or choir
ca. 3’30”

Underdogs are universal——we identify with these characters because we've all been in situations where someone else is a favorite: bigger, better, faster, stronger. We've all felt that inadequacy, but also the urge to overcome it. In his poem "Canis Major", Robert Frost beautifully captures that feeling of aspirational yearning through the lens of the lesser- known constellation Canis Minor, which translates in Latin to "lesser dog".

Canis Major was written for the 2019 Brevard Music Center Art Song Concert, where composers participating in the festival all set music to the same text chosen by Prof. Robert Aldridge, faculty of the composition program at the Brevard Music Center.

This choral arrangement of my piece Canis Major is written for and dedicated to the Diocesan Boys' School Senior Choir for the 2024 World Choir Games.

Text:

Canis Major by Robert L. Frost

The great Overdog
That heavenly beast
With a star in one eye
Gives a leap in the east.

He dances upright
All the way to the west
And never once drops
On his forefeet to rest.

I'm a poor underdog
But to-night I will bark
With the great Overdog
That romps through the dark.

Performances:

8 Jul 2019 (world premiere)
Brevard Music Center New Songs Concert
Transylvania County Library, Brevard, NC, USA
Victor DiNitto, T1; Ethan Garner, T2; Joseph O’Shea, B1; Ari Bell, B2; Adrian Wong, piano