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About the Score

Alfred Lord Tennyson’s The Kraken can be heard not only as a vivid fantasy of a mythical sea creature, but also as a poetic allegory of hidden and ancient evil. In a Christian reading, the sleeping Kraken can be understood as a symbol of Satan: a vast and destructive force that endures in the shadows of the world, active yet unseen, and ultimately subject to divine judgment. The poem’s long meditation on darkness and deep time suggests the persistence of this hidden power, while the line “Until the latter fire shall heat the deep” points toward the last day, when what has been concealed is finally brought into the light.

This setting for SSAA choir and piano follows that spiritual and dramatic arc. The opening music inhabits a world of depth and stillness, suggesting both the physical abyss and a long, restrained presence beneath the surface. The middle section introduces gradual motion and unease, as if something vast is slowly stirring. In the final section, the music surges briefly as the Kraken rises “once by man and angels to be seen,” before meeting a violent and dramatic end. In this light, the work reflects on a central Christian hope: that even the most enduring darkness is not eternal, and that its final appearance is also its final defeat.

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