Cast Thy Bread Upon the Waters (2008)

Choral piece with words from Ecclesiastes
for SATB a cappella chorus
4 min.

December 4, 2009: War Memorial Veterans Building Green Room, San Francisco

Pacific Mozart Ensemble
Lynne Morrow, conductor

Soprano: Minna Choi, Brooke Munoz, Sarah Young, Sharon Suh, Maria Haller, Amanda Pugh
Alto: Gwen Buttemer, Tracy Goodwin, Kyung Hee Cho, Sarah Stiles, Xiyan Wang, Laura Bergmann
Tenor: Alain Chiu, Devin Farney, Joshua Saulle, Liam Staskawicz, Andrew Vernon, Winton White
Bass: Andrew Cadima, Ilya Demutsky, Roberto Kalb, Steve Kim, Max Stoffregen, Sam Van Diest

Notes

Technically this was written for the SFCM Choral Competition, but really it was written for my wife Mindy. My original idea for the choral project was to set a page from my renter's insurance policy (you know, a comedy number). Then Mindy and I had an unexpected and difficult loss in our family, and suddenly comedy was the furthest thing from my mind. Thumbing through the Bible, I came upon this passage from Ecclesiastes. It spoke to me powerfully about the virtue of accepting loss as a natural and even beautiful part of life. Clouds empty, trees fall; only God knows why. Since I'm 30 now, old and wise, I'll venture a worldly observation: to feel something deeply—I mean all the way down, deep enough to make every cell in your body thrum and cry—this is a rare thing. And when I finally yielded wholly and truly to that sadness, there was a strange kind of joy in it. It happened during the two weeks I wrote the piece. Maybe you can hear it.

Text

Ecclesiastes 11: 1-5, King James Version

1 Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.
2 Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth.
3 If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth: and if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.
4 He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap.
5 As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.