The Gift to Sing score sample
SATB w/ piano, 4'00"
Premiere March 28, 2018, Albany, CA
Commission for the Albany High School Combined Choir
Mary Stocker, director
'The Gift to Sing' was the first of two commissions for the Albany High School vocal department. Mary requested a program closer that would celebrate the power and magic of music, full of energy and accessible to a wide range of singing abilities. “The Gift to Sing” fits the theme perfectly, and what emerged was a soul/pop-style tune that begins slow and reflective, then builds gradually to a huge and exuberant final chorus.
This is a recording from a rehearsal a couple days before the premiere. It's a little raw, and we ended up making some adjustments, but I love the energy they give the piece, with Mary banging out the piano as she directs:
SATB w/ piano, 4'00"
Premiere March 28, 2018, Albany, CA
Commission for the Albany High School Combined Choir
Mary Stocker, director
'The Gift to Sing' was the first of two commissions for the Albany High School vocal department. Mary requested a program closer that would celebrate the power and magic of music, full of energy and accessible to a wide range of singing abilities. “The Gift to Sing” fits the theme perfectly, and what emerged was a soul/pop-style tune that begins slow and reflective, then builds gradually to a huge and exuberant final chorus.
This is a recording from a rehearsal a couple days before the premiere. It's a little raw, and we ended up making some adjustments, but I love the energy they give the piece, with Mary banging out the piano as she directs:
The Gift to Sing (1917)
by James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938)
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.
by James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938)
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.