Concert Selections from our 2019 program
This hymn is set for choir by Sarah Quartel. Alto, Lori Wiest opens with the solo as the choir enters the hall.
My life flows on in endless song
Above earth's lamentation
I hear the real though far off hymn
That hails a new creation
No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to that rock I'm clinging
It sounds an echo in my soul
How can I keep from singing?
What though the tempest round me roars
I know the truth, it liveth
What though the darkness round me close
Songs in the night it giveth
No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to that rock I'm clinging
Since love is Lord of heaven and earth
How can I keep from singing?
I
Sung by tenors/basses of Chor Anno. Poem by George Matheson, composition by Elaine Hagenberg, Tom Walworth, cello, Brian Hoskins, piano.
O Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.
Poem by Sara Teasdale
There will be rest, and sure stars shining,
over rooftops crowned with snow,
rest, serene forgetting, a reign of rest,
serene forgetting,
The music of still.
I will make this world of my devising.
I'll make this world Out of a dream in my lonely mind.
I shall find the crystal of peace,
Above me, Stars,
I shall find the music of stillness.
Based on poem by W. B. Yeats (1840-1939). Solo by Dr. Lori Wiest.
I will arise and go now,
and go to Inisfree.
And a small cabin build there of clay and wattles made;
O nine bean rows will I have there
a hive for the honeybee,
and live alone in the bee loud glade.
Lo, lodle, los, lodle lo......
(Repeat)
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the crickets sing.
Then midnight all a-glimmer
and noon a purple glow,
and evening full of linnets' wings.
Lo, lodle, lo, lodle lo.
I will arise and go now
for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore.
While I stand on the roadway or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.
Lo, lodle, lo lodle, lo.
Poem by James Agee, Composed by Morten Lauridsen
Sure on this shining night of star-made shadows round, kindness must watch for me this side the ground,
on this shining night,
The late year lies down the north. All is healed, all is health. High summer holds the earth, hearts all whole. The late year lies down the north. All is healed, all is health.
Combined songs by Mark Hayes
We shall overcome, We shall overcome, We shall overcome, some day. Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe We shall overcome, some day.
Sometimes in our lives
We all have pain, we all have sorrow.
But if we are wise,
We know that there's always tomorrow.
Lean on me when you're not strong
And I'll be your friend, I'll help you carry on
For it won't be long
'Til I'm gonna need somebody to lean on.
The Hope of Loving
I. Yield to Love (Rabia)
I know about love the way the fields know about light,
the way the forest shelters us.
We are vulnerable like an infant.
We need each other’s care or we will suffer.
How will you ever find peace unless you yield to love?
II. Wild Forces (St. Francis of Assisi)
There are beautiful, wild forces within us.
Let them turn millstones inside
filling bushels that reach to the sky.
III. Wondrous Creatures (Hafiz)
O wondrous creatures, by what strange miracle do you so often not smile?
IV. The Heart’s Veil (string quartet)
V. My Soul Is a Candle (St. John of the Cross)
My soul is a candle that burned away the veil;
only the glorious duties of light I now have.
The soul is a candle that will burn away the darkness;
only the glorious duties of love we will have.
Tenderly, I now touch all things, knowing one day we will part.
VI. The Hope of Loving (Meister Eckhart)
What keeps us alive, what allows us to endure?
It is the hope of loving, of being loved.
We weep when light does not reach our hearts.
We wither like fields if someone close
does not rain their kindness upon us.
My soul has a purpose, it is to love.