CHORISTERS
My Old Kentucky Home arr. Richard Burchard (b. 1960)
The sun shines bright on my old Kentucky home,
Tis summer, the people are gay;
The corn-top's ripe and the meadow's in the bloom,
While the birds make music all the day.
The young folks roll on the little cabin floor,
All merry, all happy and bright;
By'n' by hard times come a-knocking at the door,
Then my old Kentucky home, good night.
Weep no more my lady.
Oh! Weep no more today!
We will sing one song
For my old Kentucky home
For my old Kentucky home, far away.
Liebeslieder Waltzes, Op.52, No. 18 Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Es bebet das Gesträuche,
Gestreift hat es im Fluge ein Vögelein.
In gleicher Art erbebet die Seele mir,
erschüttert von Liebe, Lust und Leide,
gedenkt sie dein.
The bushes tremble,
brushed during the flight of a little bird.
In the same way my soul trembles,
shaken by love, joy, and sorrow,
when it thinks of you.
-Translation by Cayuga Vocal Ensemble, with one word added, www.cpdl.org
Shenandoah arr. James Erb (1926-2014)
O, Shenandoah, I long to see you,
And hear your rolling river,
O, Shenandoah, I long to see you,
‘Way, we’re bound away, across the wide Missouri.
I long to see your smiling valley,
And hear your rolling river,
I long to see your smiling valley,
‘Way, we’re bound away, across the wide Missouri.
’Tis seven long years since last I see you,
And hear your rolling river,
’Tis sev’n long years since last I see you,
‘Way, we’re bound away,
Across the wide Missouri.
O, Shenandoah, I long to see you,
And hear your rolling river,
O, Shenandoah, I long to see you,
‘Way, we’re bound away, across the wide Missouri.
Time Jennifer Lucy Cook (b. 1988)
Time, you can spend it, when you spend it, then you're running out of
Time, you can save it, but to save it is to take a little
Time, in a minute, when you're in it, can you feel the passing
Time, is an illusion, there's confusion, when they tell you now it's
Time, to get older, time to work and time to waste and there's no
Time, left to hold her, time to tell him how you feel while there's still
Time, three, two, one, eleven thirty, two a.m., then dinner
Time, now to kill, I said I will, and still it flies and flies, oh
Time.
By Night Elaine Hagenberg (b. 1979)
Deep in the tarn the mountain
A mighty phantom gleamed,
She leaned out into the midnight,
And the summer wind went by,
The scent of the rose
on its silken wing
And a song its sigh.
And, in depths below, the waters
Answered some mystic height,
As a star stooped out
of the depths above
With its lance of light.
And she thought, in the dark
and the fragrance,
How vast was the wonder wrought
If the sweet world
were but the beauty born
In its Maker’s thought.
Text by Harriet Prescott Spofford
My Old Kentucky Home reprise arr. Richard Burchard (b. 1960)
CHORALE
Surge Illuminare Budi Susanto Yohanes (b. 1979)
Surge illuminare, Jerusalem,
Quia venit lumen tuum,
Et gloria, Domini super te orta est.
Quia ecce tenebrae operient terram,
Et caligo populos
Super te autem orietur Dominus,
Et gloria ejusin te videbitur
Amen!
Arise, be enlightened, Jerusalem
Because your light is come,
And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.
For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,
And a gloom shall be cast over the people:
But upon you the Lord shall arise,
And his glory shall be seen upon you.
Amen.
-Isaiah 60:1
Holding the Light B.E. Boykin (b. 1989)
Gather up whatever is glittering in the gutter,
whatever has tumbled in the waves or fallen
in flames out of the sky,
for it’s not only our hearts that are broken,
but the heart of the world as well.
stitch it back together.
Make a place where the day speaks to the night
and the earth speaks to the sky.
Whether we created God or God created us
it all comes down to this:
In our imperfect world we are meant to repair
and stitch together what beauty there is, stitch it
with compassion and wire.
See how everything we have made gathers
the light inside itself and overflows? A blessing
-Poetry by Stuart Kestenbaum (b. 1953)
The Music of Stillness Elaine Hagenberg (b. 1979)
There will be rest, and sure stars shining
Over the roof-tops crowned with snow,
A reign of rest, serene forgetting,
The music of stillness holy and low.
I will make this world of my devising
Out of a dream in my lonely mind.
I shall find the crystal of peace, - above me
Stars I shall find.
-Poetry by Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)
The Road Home Stephen Paulus (1949-2013)
Tell me where is the road I can call my own,
That I left, that I lost, So long ago?
All these years I have wandered, Oh when will I know
There’s a way, there’s a road that will lead me home?
After wind, after rain, when the dark is done,
As I wake from a dream In the gold of day,
Through the air there’s a calling From far away,
There’s a voice I can hear that will lead me home.
Rise up, follow me, Come away is the call,
With the love in your heart As the only song;
There is no such beauty as where you belong,
Rise up, follow me, I will lead you home.
Light of a Clear Blue Morning Dolly Parton (1946-2026), arr. Craig Hella Johnson (b. 1942)
It’s been a long dark night,
And I’ve been waiting for the morning.
It’s been a long hard fight,
But I see a brand-new day a-dawning.
I’ve been looking for the sunshine
‘Cause I ain’t seen it in so long.
Everything’s gonna work out fine.
Everything’s gonna be alright,
It’s gonna be okay.
I can see the light of a clear blue morning.
I can see the light of a brand-new day.
I can see the light of a clear blue morning.
Everything’s gonna be alright,
It’s gonna be okay.
I Am Loved Christopher Harris (b. 1985)
I am wild, I will sing to the trees,
I will sing to the stars in the sky,
I love, I am loved, he is mine,
Now at last I can die!
I am sandaled with wind and with flame,
I have heart-fire and singing to give,
I can tread on the grass or the stars,
Now at last I can live!
-Poetry by Sara Teasdale
