In Common Things for soprano and piano
Minot Judson Savage (1841-1918)
Seek not afar for beauty. Lo! It glows
In dew-wet grasses all about thy feet:
In birds, in sunshine, childish faces sweet,
In stars, and mountain summits topped with snows.
Dream not of noble service elsewhere wrought:
The simple duty that awaits thy hand
Is God’s voice uttering a divine command;
Life’s common deeds build all that saints have thought.
The paradise men seek, the city bright
That gleams beyond the stars for longing eyes,
Is only human goodness in the skies.
Earth’s deeds, well done, glow into heavenly light.
In wonder-workings, or some bush aflame,
Men look for God, and fancy him concealed.
But in earth’s common things he stands revealed;
While grass and flowers and stars spell out his name.
Alecia Batson and Larry Bell, First Church Boston, July 2023
More Vocal and Choral Works
The Prism of the Lyre, Opus 197 1
Seven Principles for SATB chorus acapella No. 7, Opus 193 2
Music when soft voices die, no. 1, Opus 190 no. 1 4
The Shadows Fall So Gently, Opus 181 5
Parables of Love and Death, Opus 173 7
A Hymnbook for Congregational Singing, Opus 169 8
The Harp at Nature's Advent, Opus 167 9
Thou God of Love, Thou Ever Blessed, Opus 164 10
Blest Are the Sons of Peace, Opus 16 11
O God our Help in Ages Past, Opus 162 12
Awake our Souls, Away our Fears, Opus 160 14
Domenica a Filicudi, Opus 158 16
The Lone Wild Bird, Opus 154 17
Once to Every Soul and Nation, Opus 144 20
Arrangements of Congregational Music for Thanksgiving, Opus 142 21
I'm Just A Poor Wayfaring Stranger, Opus 131 24
And Am I Born to Die?, Opus 129 25
Now Shall My Inward Joy Arise, Opus 128 26
The Book of Blues, Opus 119 29
Fancies, a cycle of five songs for Tenor and Piano, Opus 117 30
Revels, A cycle of ten songs for Baritone Voice and Piano, Opus 114 31
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