The Gift to Sing
2021
​ca. 5.5'
SSAA and piano
Text: James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938)
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Sometimes the mist overhangs my path,
And blackening clouds about me cling;
But, oh, I have a magic way
To turn the gloom to cheerful day—
I softly sing.
And if the way grows darker still,
Shadowed by Sorrow’s somber wing,
With glad defiance in my throat,
I pierce the darkness with a note,
And sing, and sing.
I brood not over the broken past,
Nor dread whatever time may bring;
No nights are dark, no days are long,
While in my heart there swells a song,
And I can sing.
A swirling setting of James Weldon Johnson's timeless words. Contains many time signature changes, but is still accessible for intermediate and advanced choirs of varying ages.
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The Gift to Sing was composed between September and October of 2020, and revised in late 2021, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. As the virus silenced singers, choirs, and performers around the world, I found James W. Johnson’s text to be a timely reminder of the power of song in the face of adversity. Whether created in the collective embrace of an ensemble, or in the intimate glow of solitude, music is a soul-nourishing, life changing, and irreplaceable gift that we are unbelievably fortunate to enjoy.
Written for and premiered in April 2022 by the Nazareth University Treble Choir in Rochester, NY.