Legacy: Songs of Unity (2025)
For SATB choir, piano, string quartet, and percussion
1. Unity (3.5’)
2. Lead, Kindly Light (5.5’)
3. Music and Poetry (6’)
Mvnt. 3 Purchase
Commissioned by Shanpatrick Davis for the Davis Alumni Choir.
Supported by New Music USA’s Creator Development Fund 2023 - 2024.
When my former high school choir director, Shanpatrick Davis, approached me asking to write a piece for him to conduct at Carnegie Hall with a choir of his alumni, I was absolutely thrilled. He commissioned it to be a celebration of his 25 years of teaching and so I sought to create a work that acted as a love letter to music and a representation of the power it has to bring people together.
I chose the text from the first movement from a tradition we had at the end of the year in choir in which we always sang the same song to end the final spring concert which used the Psalm 133 text. I thought it would be perfect that the first song we sing with him would use the text of the very last song we sang.
In the second movement I wanted to show a journey of someone who has lost their way in life finding it back again through music.
I first approached the third movement as a celebration of the glorious unification of music and poetry but as I worked on it more, the meaning of the Purcell text changed for me. It became about unity among people and coming together as a community to face grief, trauma, and hardships: each of us walking hand in hand to support one another.
I - Psalm 133
Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity
It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron's beard, down upon the collar of his robes.
It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the LORD bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.
II - Lead, Kindly Light (1833) - John Henry Newman
Lead, Kindly Light, amidst th'encircling gloom,
Lead Thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home,
Lead Thou me on!
Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me.
I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou
Shouldst lead me on;
I loved to choose and see my path; but now
Lead Thou me on!
I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,
Pride ruled my will. Remember not past years!
So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still
Will lead me on.
O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone,
And with the morn those angel faces smile,
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile!
III - Music and Poetry (1843) - Henry Purcell and Edward Taylor
Music and Poetry have ever been acknowledged Sisters, which walking hand in hand support each other; As poetry is the harmony of words, so music is that of notes; and as poetry is a rise above prose and oratory, so is music the exaltation of poetry. Both of them may excel apart, but sure they are most excellent when they are joined, because nothing is then wanting to either of their perfections: for thus they appear like beauty and wit in the same person.