Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night  

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, based on the poem written by Dylan Thomas a year before his father's death, is written for soprano, amplified piano and four percussion. The work divides the percussion into four classes:
        1) wood-pitched (marimba/xylophone) and unpitched (temple/wood blocks, log drums, maracas);
        2) metal-pitched (bells, vibraphones, crotales);
        3) drums (bongos, tom-toms, timpani, bass drum); and
        4) metal-unpitched (suspended cymbals, gongs, tam-tams).

The poem speaks of four types of men - wise, good, wild and grave. The composition links the four classes of percussion instruments with these four types of men, and further connects four musical elements (pitch - melody/harmony, rhythm and timbre) to the four men that:

        wise men = wood = melody
        good men = metal-pitched = harmony
        wild men = drums = rhythm
        grave men = metal-unpitched = timbre

The piece ends with a combination of all the instrumental classes and musical elements, paralleling the poet's plea to his father to "Rage, rage against the dying of the light" as all men must, whether they be wise, good, wild or grave.

There will be a sense that the soprano cannot be understood as the piece progresses. Symbolically death (the percussion) compels the father (the audience) to sink into unconsciousness, so that the speaker of the poem's message (the pleading of the daughter) becomes unintelligible. A knowledge of the poem will be useful at this point. -D.K.G.

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lighting they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight.
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Thomas

Copyright 01971 by the Trustees of the Copyrights of Dylan Thomas