Emersonia
1. The Rhodora
2. Two Rivers
3. Give All To Love
4. Concord Hymn
Ralph Waldo Emerson
For the texts of this piece I chose four poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson, who was for a brief period a Unitarian minister in Boston. The four parts of this piece, “The Rhedora,” “Two Rivers,” “Give all to Love,” and “Concord Hymn,” are designed for an entire service: Prelude, Musical Interlude, Offertory, and Postlude respectively. “Concord Hymn” is best known for its line “and fired the shot heard round the world.” Emersonia is dedicated to Paul Cienniwa and the choir at First Church Boston who gave its premiere during the fall of 2011.
The music is largely tonal with frequent inflections of harmony drawn from the parallel minor, sometime known as modal interchange. Both the beginning and the end are mostly homophonic with the two interior sections being mostly polyphonic. “Two Rivers,” for example contains many examples of canonic imitation that reflect the textual idea of the two rivers. In all four sections appear many instances of text painting akin to those of the Renaissance madrigal.
June 10, 2012, First Church service. Also October 2, 2011. January 27, 2013, Collin Concert at the First Church Boston, Choir of First Church Boston
More Vocal and Choral Works
The Prism of the Lyre, Opus 197 1
Seven Principles for SATB chorus acapella No. 7, Opus 193 2
In Common Things for soprano and piano, Opus 190 no. 2 4
Music when soft voices die, no. 1, Opus 190 no. 1 5
The Shadows Fall So Gently, Opus 181 6
Parables of Love and Death, Opus 173 8
A Hymnbook for Congregational Singing, Opus 169 9
The Harp at Nature's Advent, Opus 167 10
Thou God of Love, Thou Ever Blessed, Opus 164 11
Blest Are the Sons of Peace, Opus 16 12
O God our Help in Ages Past, Opus 162 13
Awake our Souls, Away our Fears, Opus 160 15
Domenica a Filicudi, Opus 158 17
The Lone Wild Bird, Opus 154 18
Once to Every Soul and Nation, Opus 144 21
Arrangements of Congregational Music for Thanksgiving, Opus 142 22
I'm Just A Poor Wayfaring Stranger, Opus 131 25
And Am I Born to Die?, Opus 129 26
Fancies, a cycle of five songs for Tenor and Piano, Opus 117 31
Revels, A cycle of ten songs for Baritone Voice and Piano, Opus 114 32
The Echolocations of Cellos, Opus 108 33
The Seasons, A Cantata, Opus 101 38
Summer: The Fragrant Pathway of Eternity, Opus 100 39
Spring: In the Pendulum of My Body, Opus 99 40
Duet from Holy Ghosts, Opus 93 41
Winter: Exaltations of Snowy Stars, Opus 929 42
Unchanging Love, a hymn based on a text by Romulus Linney, Opus 87 43
Fall: Autumnal Raptures, a song cycle for Tenor and Harp, Opus 86 45
Dream within a Dream, Opus 79 46
Songs of Time and Eternity, Opus 64 47
Shakespeare Sonnets, Opus 58 48
Ten Poems of William Blake, Opus 53 49
“The Immortal Beloved”, Opus 50 50
A Cry Against the Twilight, Opus 42 52
“Four Sacred Songs”, Opus 20 53
“Prologue” and “The End of the World”, Opus 14 55
Poems of Our Climate, Opus 9 56
Reality Is an Activity of the Most August Imagination, Opus 8 57