John McAllister
Composer, Educator
  • Start Here
    • Blog
  • Music
    • Concert Band - VE
    • Concert Band - E
    • Concert Band - ME
    • Expandable Quintets - Classical
    • Expandable Quintets - Pops
    • Expandable Quintets - Patriotic
    • Marching Band
    • Jazz
    • Chamber Music - Duets
    • Christmas/Holiday
  • Instruments
    • Flute
    • Oboe
    • Bassoon
    • Clarinet
    • Saxophone
    • Trumpet
    • Horn
    • Trombone
    • Euphonium
    • Tuba
    • Percussion
  • Free Resources
    • Let's Read Music
    • Ensemble Theory
    • Warm-ups
    • Warm-Ups Symphony
    • Scales and Technique
    • Arrangements
    • Sight-Reading
    • Breathing
    • Jazz Center
    • Band Games
    • Strings!
    • Recruitment Materials
    • Other Resources
    • Coronastress Relief
    • Posters
    • Clip Art
    • Free Christmas
  • Cinematic Series
    • Complete Warm-Ups Sets
    • Long Tones
    • Flexibility
    • Articulation
    • Scales
    • Page of Patterns
    • Counting
    • Play Alongs
    • Pop Rhythms
    • Classical Improv
    • LoFi Improv
    • Music Humor
  • Me
Picture

The Road Not Taken

7/20/2014

1 Comment

 
Picture
For whatever reason today, I googled "Robert Frost public domain." To my excitement, I found that "The Road Not Taken" is actually in the public domain!! This poem has always been one of my favorites and despite the fact that it has probably been set to music many times, I plan on setting it myself. I can remember years ago reading about how Eric Whitacre had originally set Sleep to a Robert Frost poem and the words had to be changed due to copyright laws. Apparently, anything Frost published before 1923 is in the public domain. Great news. It has been quite a while since I wrote a choral piece, so this will be a great adventure for me. Maybe I'll go sit in the woods and read the poem a few times. 

"The Road Not Taken" (1916)

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

1 Comment
Dale Raby
1/10/2021 04:41:30 am

So... did you ever write the song? I've got a few short stories based on this poem awaiting time for me to set type to it and start pulling the operating handle on my press.

Mostly I print short runs of "chap books"... maybe a hundred copies or so at most, and thought I might include The Road Not Taken in both stories.

Yes, the late Tim Raby, musician from New York was my younger brother.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    The musings of a composer that also band directs!! ... or maybe it's the other way around..

    Archives

    March 2020
    February 2020
    March 2019
    December 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

the music
Free Resources
Compositions
Instruments
Cinematic Series
Picture
the composer
About
Contact
The Blog
JWPepper Composer Page
  • Start Here
    • Blog
  • Music
    • Concert Band - VE
    • Concert Band - E
    • Concert Band - ME
    • Expandable Quintets - Classical
    • Expandable Quintets - Pops
    • Expandable Quintets - Patriotic
    • Marching Band
    • Jazz
    • Chamber Music - Duets
    • Christmas/Holiday
  • Instruments
    • Flute
    • Oboe
    • Bassoon
    • Clarinet
    • Saxophone
    • Trumpet
    • Horn
    • Trombone
    • Euphonium
    • Tuba
    • Percussion
  • Free Resources
    • Let's Read Music
    • Ensemble Theory
    • Warm-ups
    • Warm-Ups Symphony
    • Scales and Technique
    • Arrangements
    • Sight-Reading
    • Breathing
    • Jazz Center
    • Band Games
    • Strings!
    • Recruitment Materials
    • Other Resources
    • Coronastress Relief
    • Posters
    • Clip Art
    • Free Christmas
  • Cinematic Series
    • Complete Warm-Ups Sets
    • Long Tones
    • Flexibility
    • Articulation
    • Scales
    • Page of Patterns
    • Counting
    • Play Alongs
    • Pop Rhythms
    • Classical Improv
    • LoFi Improv
    • Music Humor
  • Me