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And the Song Am I
Voicing: SATB chorus, brass quintetText: Lily A. Long (edited and adapted by the composer)
Duration: 2 min.
Premiere: May 3, 2008; Dale Warland, conductor (Marshall, MN)
Commissioned by: Choirs of Note in recognition of the dedication and art of Minnesota's youth and music educators
Published by: Abbie Betinis Music Co., AB-056-00 (2011)
Score Sample: PREVIEW THE SCORE
LISTEN:
And the Song Am I (MIDI version, with all standard MIDI apologies)
Do you have a live recording of this piece? Please let me know so I can feature it here!
PROGRAM NOTE:
This fanfare, written for Choirs of Note, was commissioned to provide musical "bookends" to a large choral festival. Therefore, as a concert opener, it might be performed from the beginning through the first ending. Then, to close the same concert, you play it again! For the second time, you may choose to start from the beginning, from measure 20 (brass only), or from the pick-up to measure 23, taking the second ending.
Of course, the piece may also be performed only once. In that case, please sing it straight through (from the very beginning), skipping the first ending, and going straight to the second ending.
Special thanks to Dale Warland, Russell Svenningsen, and Gordon Crow, for their dedication to this project.
- Abbie Betinis, 2008
And the Song Am I
Cold may lie the day,
And bare of grace;
At night I slip away
To the singing place.
Where faint and far away
I hear the beat
In broken rhythm and rhyme
Of joyous feet
The thunderous music peals
Around, o'erhead -
The dead would awake to hear
If there were dead;
But the life of the throbbing Sun
Is in the song,
And we weave the world anew,
With the singing throng!
And the pulsing chant swells up
To touch the sky,
And the song is joy,
is hope,
is peace,
is life -
And the song am I!
"The Singing Place" by Lily A. Long. Published 1912 in Poetry magazine. Public domain. Edited and adapted by Abbie Betinis.
Cold may lie the day,
And bare of grace;
At night I slip away
To the singing place.
Where faint and far away
I hear the beat
In broken rhythm and rhyme
Of joyous feet
The thunderous music peals
Around, o'erhead -
The dead would awake to hear
If there were dead;
But the life of the throbbing Sun
Is in the song,
And we weave the world anew,
With the singing throng!
And the pulsing chant swells up
To touch the sky,
And the song is joy,
is hope,
is peace,
is life -
And the song am I!
"The Singing Place" by Lily A. Long. Published 1912 in Poetry magazine. Public domain. Edited and adapted by Abbie Betinis.