Ubi caritas et amor Davis Briggs
This setting of Ubi caritas et amor marries French influence with 21st-century harmonic language. David Briggs uses the plainchant melody in a series of ways that avoids a parallel version of the familiar Duruflé setting. This a cappella motet was written for Gary Desmond and the Choir of Bristol City Church for the Grande Messe at Notre-Dame de Paris in July, 2006.
Ubi cáritas et amor, Deus ibi est. Congregávit nos in unum Christi amor. Exsultémus et in ipso iucundémur. Timeámus et amémus Deum vivum. Et ex corde diligámus nos sincéro. | Where charity and love are, God is there. Christ's love has gathered us into one. Let us rejoice and be pleased in Him. Let us fear, and let us love the living God. And may we love each other with a sincere heart. |
Faulte d’argent Josquin des Prez
This short motet is indicative of Josquin’s mastery of melodic and tonal details, and uses a cantus firmus (fixed melody) which serves as the basis for his Missa Faulte d’argent. Though designed to be light hearted, this piece describes challenges of being poor in the early to mid-16th century.
Faute d'argent c'est douleur non pareille. Si je le dis, hélas, je sais bien pourquoi. Sans argent, il faut se tenir tranquille. Femme qui dort, pour argent se réveille. | Being poor is a great pain. And alas, I know it but all too well. The penniless have to lay low, since sleeping women will only wake for cash. |
Te Deum in C Benjamin Britten
Britten only wrote two Te Deums, both of which are drastically different. This Te Deum in C for chorus, soli and organ is filled with energy, drama and a variety of timbral and harmonic colors. This piece indeed illustrates the creativity and vulnerability of Britten.
We praise thee, O God, we acknowledge thee to be the Lord. All the earth doth worship thee, the Father everlasting. To thee all Angels cry aloud: the Heavens, and all the Powers therein. To thee Cherubin and Seraphin continually do cry: Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth. Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty of thy glory. The glorious company of the Apostles, the goodly fellowship of the Prophets, the noble army of Martyrs praise thee; the holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge thee the Father of infinite Majesty, venerating thine honourable, true, and only Son, also the Holy Ghost, the Comforter. Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ: thou art the everlasting Son of the Father. When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man, thou didst not abhor the Virgin’s womb. When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death, thou didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers. Thou sittest at the right hand of God in the glory of the Father. We believe that thou shalt come to be our Judge. We therefore pray thee, help thy servants whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood. Make them to be numbered with thy Saints in glory everlasting. O Lord, save thy people, and bless thine heritage. Govern them and lift them up for ever. Day by day we magnify thee, and we worship thy Name forever, world without end. Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin. Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us. O Lord, let thy mercy lighten upon us, as our trust is in thee. O Lord, in thee have I trusted: let me never be confounded. |
America Will Be! Joel Thompson
When I was a young child, I imagined that America was like living on Sesame Street in Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood—a utopic land of opportunity and freedom. When I finally arrived at age ten, my dreams had mostly come true, but I also learned a somber lesson that not all principles are easy to put into practice. It was that friction between professed ideals and painful reality that Langston Hughes captured in his poem, “Let America Be America Again.” That friction is also the foundation of the piece commissioned by Shannon Lyles and the FHS Patriot Singers in Orlando, Florida. Freedom High School serves such a diverse community of immigrants that eleven languages were represented in Ms. Lyles’ top choir. As hateful and xenophobic rhetoric became prominent in national discourse, we worked together to capture the essence of the choir’s ethnic diversity and artistic unity. Emma Lazarus’ words, which are engraved at the base of the Statue of Liberty, are a perfect foil to Hughes’ dark (but ultimately hopeful) sentiments. To add a personal touch to the piece, I also asked the members of the choir to complete three prompts—I hope…/I dream…/I sing...—which they would then translate and record so that I could get a sense of the rhythm of their respective languages. In the end, the piece aims to make plain how far we are from the ideals we’ve set for ourselves, but it also clings to the hope that we will one day achieve them. I can’t think of anything more American than that. —Joel Thompson
Who are you that mumbles in the dark
and who are you that draws your veil across the stars? [...]
I’m the one who dreamt a dream while still a serf of kings
A dream so strong, so brave, so true that even yet it sings.
To build a homeland of the free.
[...]
For all the songs we’ve sung,
and all the dreams we’ve dreamed,
America was never America to me,
and yet I swear: America will be!
– Langston Hughes
Give me your tired, your poor,
your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
give me the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these to me!
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
– Emma Lazarus
Spanish Yo sueño de un nuevo amanecer | I dream of a new dawn. |
Sindhala Mage anagatha sinduwa | I sing for the future. |
Filipino Umaasa ako no may pagbabago | I hope there is a change |
Arabic ’Atamanaa ’an albashar yatealam an yu hib. | I hope that people can learn to love |
Portuguese Eu canto porque estou livre | I sing because I am free. |
Mandarin Wǒ mèngxiǎngzhe měihǎo de wèilái. | I dream of a better future. |
Japanese Seigi o motomote. | I hope for justice. |
German Ich singe für eine Flucht aus der Welt | I sing for an escape from the world. |
Vietnamese Còn ươć mong hoà biǹh. | I dream of peace. |
Haitian Creole Mwen chante pou lapè sou Latè. | I sing for peace. |
– Students of the Freedom High School Chorus
Steal Away arr. Diedre Robinson
This arrangement of a classic spiritual illustrates subtly and vulnerability that blossom into moments of strength and security. Robinson paints a myriad of vocal colors with lush harmony and strong articulation, communicating both the desire to escape and the security of a promised land.
Steal away, steal away,
Steal away to Jesus.
Steal away, steal away home.
I ain’t got long to stay here. My Lord, he calls me,
He calls me by the thunder;
The trumpet sounds within my soul;
I ain’t got long to stay here. |
A Fair and Delectable Place Richard Webster
Written in loving memory of Jennifer Pendleton Cook for The Saint Luke’s Choir and Schola of Evanston, Illinois and their 1993 tour of England, this piece uses the text of Dame Julian Norwich from her Revelations of Divine Love. Webster creates beautiful serene imagery through sound that is anchored in love and provides comfort.
Behold and see your Lord, your God, who is your Creator and your endless joy. See your own brother; see your Savior. My child, behold and see what delight and bliss I have in your salvation, and, for my love, rejoice with me. With a kindly countenance our good Lord looked into his side, and he gazed with joy, and with his sweet regard he drew his creature's understanding into his side by the same wound: and there he revealed a fair and delectable place, large enough for all mankind that will be saved, and will rest in peace and love. |
The Light of Common Day Shawn Crouch
Commissioned by Tom Cunningham and the Manhattan Choral Ensemble to dedicate to Kathleen Lockwood, this piece uses the text of William Wordsworth’s Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood. Crouch brilliantly uses continuous sound to depict the continuous cycle of life from birth.
Our birth is but asleep. The soul that hath rises with us, and a forgetting; Our life’s star, Hath had elsewhere its setting, and cometh from afar: Not in entire forgetfulness, ANd not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come from God, who is our home: Heaven lies about us in our infancy! Shades of the prisonhouse begins to close upon the growing Boy, But he beholds the light, from whence it flows, He sees it in his joy; The youth, who daily farther from the east. Must Travel still is Nature’s Priest, And by the vision splendid is on his way attended; At length the Man perceives it die away and fade to the light of common day. |
Pilgrims’ Hymn Stephen Paulus
In April, 1997 I had a one-act opera called The Three Hermits (based on a short story by Leo Tolstoy) premiered at The House of Hope Presbyterian Church in St. Paul, MN. That organization also commissioned the work which was written for a small cast, an orchestra of 11 players and the church's Motet Choir. Thomas Lancaster was the conductor and the one hour work received four sold-out performances. My friend and colleague, Kathy Romey, conductor of the Minnesota Chorale and also the Head of Choral Activities at the University of Minnesota, saw one of the premiere performances and encouraged me to have the final chorus in the opera published as a separate work… I printed up a 1000 copies at a local print shop and decided that this would be the first work to be published by my own company - Paulus Publications, Inc… It has also been sung at the funeral services of both Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan.
– Stephen Paulus
Even before we call on Your name To ask You, O God,
When we seek for the words to glorify You,
You hear our prayer;
Unceasing love, O unceasing love,
Surpassing all we know. Glory to the father,
and to the Son,
And to the Holy Spirit. Even with darkness sealing us in,
We breathe Your name,
And through all the days that follow so fast,
We trust in You;
Endless Your grace, O endless Your grace,
Beyond all mortal dream. Both now and forever,
And unto ages and ages,
Amen |
Bogoród̃itse D̃évo, from All Night Vigil, Op. 37 Sergei Rachmaninoff
Praised as Rachmaninoff's finest achievement, the All-Night Vigil is a multi-movement a capella work using texts from the Russian Orthodox vigil ceremony. Having intensely studied chant, Rachmaninoff incorporates three variants into the work, including znamenny and kiev. Bogoród̃itse D̃évo (Hail Mary) is sixth of the fifteen movements, and remains the most performed of the work.
Bogoród̃itse D̃évo, ráduys̃i︠a︡, Blagodátnaya Mar̃íye, Ghospód s Tobóyu. Blagosloṽénna Tï v zhenáẖ, i blagosloṽén Plod chr̃éva Tvoyegó, yáko Spása rod̃ilá yes̃í dush náshïẖ. | Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos, Mary full of grace, the Lord is with Thee. Blessed art Thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, for Thou hast borne the Savior of our souls. |
