Harstine Island Community Choir
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Program Notes

Your Soul Is Song                 Jake Runestad 
                Sing!
                When the seams burst,
                and when the traps ensnare,
                and your body breaks,
                and the light flees--
                Sing then!
                For then, your soul is song.
                                   - Germán Aguilar

When Germán Aguilar passed away unexpectedly in the summer of 2014, it was a huge loss to our world. Germán had a warm, kind personality and a love for life, teaching, and the people around him. he was a choral conductor, had a beautiful tenor voice, and was deeply engaged in the music community.
After a difficult time in his life, Germán wrote this poem - a plea to the power of song and weathering the storms of life. Germán died of a massive aneurism in the middle of a concert, while he was singing, and I can't move beyond that image and the meaning it brings to these words. Life is not easy, and is never perfect, but there is so much beauty and joy to be found in song.

The Sky is Strung With Glory            Andrea Ramsey, music
                                                            Madeleine L'Engle, text


              "Poetry, at least the kind I write, is written out of immediate need; it is written out of pain, joy, and too great to be borne until it is ordered into words."
                                                                                                             -Madeline L'Engle

The poetic text of The Sky is Strung with Glory is an excerpt from Madeline L'Engle's poem Instruments (1). The poem is the first in a pair of "instruments" poems by L'Engle and is rich in evocative imagery that ties celestial elements (light, stars, sun, sky) to musical experiences (singing, playing, melody). For anyone who has read L'Engle's young fiction books (A Wrinkle in Time, etc.) the poetic connections she makes between the universe and music will come as no surprise.

Love is Little                                      trad. Shaker, arr. Kevin Siegfried

On the Mountain (Ой на Горi)                             trad. Ukrainian folksong, arr. Donald Patriquin  
On the Mountain celebrates at once the ingrained spirit and joy of the Ukrainian peoples, along with their determination and resilience - displayed particularly in times of hardship, oppression, and war. Proceeds from the purchase of this music are donated to either International Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, or CARE.

While published as a Ukrainian folksong, this song truly appears to be primarily sung as a campfire song at Ukrainian gatherings in the United States. The text roughly translates as follows; On the mountain a shepherd pushes his sheep. It would have been better not to walk you home and even better not to know. If on Thursday to leave you, to leave you is a pity, for your beautiful eyes. But I will not love you for you do not want me. 
           
Workin' for the Dawn of Peace        Civil War Songs, arr. Ron Jeffers

Peace                                                 trad. Shaker, arr. Kevin Siegfried

The Arrow and the Song                  Reginald Unterseher, music
                                                                  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, text 

              I shot an arrow into the air,
              It fell to earth, I knew not where;
              For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
              Could not follow it in its flight. 
             
              I breathed a song into the air,
              It fell to earth, I knew not where;
              For who has sight so keen and strong,
              That it can follow the flight of song?

              Long, long afterward, in an oak

              I found the arrow, still unbroke;
              And the song, from beginning to end,
              I found again in the heart of a friend.

Thy Little Ones                                Prospect, Southern Harmony arr. J. Edmund Hughes & Brian Galante, music
                                                          Hans Adolf Brorson trans. Harriet R. Spaeth, text

This arrangement of Prospect (Southern Harmony) is dedicated to the memory of young Maari Dickerson, who lost her courageous fight with cancer in  August 2013. Maari's parents, David and Margie, are active musicians in the Puget Sound area, and this is but one way we offered our support during their time of grief. As we all struggled with what to say, we sought to find in music a way to express our sympathy, honor Maari's memory, and assist the Dickersons with the huge medical expenses incurred during Maari's illness. Royalties from the salve of this octavo will continue to be donated to programs that assist families fighting childhood cancer.         -Hughes & Galante

Wayfarin' Stranger                            Appalachian folk hymn arr. Reginald Unterseher

The Morning Trumpet                      Sacred Harp arr. Daniel Kallman, music
                                                            John Leland, text

                                                                                 
Omnia Sol                                          Z. Randall Stroope
Omnia Sol" goes beyond the obvious subject of a farewell or "song of parting", although it certainly has that as an integral aspect. From a deeper perspective, it is a reflection on the constant passage of events and people in life's continuum, and the human need to anchor words of love and commitment in the hearts of those who have been pillars along life's way. In that manner, the ever-changing chaos of life seems to find a piece of solid ground in the simple assurance that one is hardly alone; rather, life is a mosaic made up of visual images, conversations, laughter, love, sorrow, and experiences too numerous to count - all as a result of one's interaction with other human beings from the moment of birth. One's life has an inseparable kinship with others. The metaphor for that kinship in this piece is "omina sol" (or "everywhere light" [sun]), and that kinship or light is perpetuated by our daily investing, and leaving a bit of ourselves in every soul we encounter. Though we mature and "move on", part of us is "staid" in the hearts and minds of those we chance to meet. The Latin in the text comes from Carmina Burana and translates to "The sun warms everything, even when I am far away. Love me faithfully, and know that I am faithful.)

Nothing Gold Can Stay                     Laurie de Leonne, music
                                                            Robert Frost, text

"Nothing Gold Can Stay" was written during the return to 'the new normal' after pandemic lock downs. If nothing else, the Covid-19 pandemic taught musicians and students how much many of us wanted to be together to sing in the same room. We recalled pre-pandemic time whistfully while many of us met virtually. Nations waited for vaccines to become available se we could return to singing together again in person. 

The text of the piece recalls the beauty of transitions-- in this case, leaves turning from green to gold. How beautiful it is! But autumn beauty can not and does not remain. Like many beautiful things in life, there is a cycle: autumnal beauty (and the joy of singing together) yields to winter (and pandemic time), yet even difficult time is transitional. Spring comes again as does the return to group singing. Nothing black can stay, either!

John O Dreams                                Tchaikovsky 'Piva, Piva' arr. Bill Caddick, Moira Smiley, Seamus Egan, music
                                                           Bill Caddick, text


The Peace of Wild Things               Mark Sirett, music

                                                          Wendell Berry, text

American writer and poet, Wendell Berry is a prolific author of novels, short stories, poems, and essays. He is also an elected member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers and a recipient of The National Humanities Medal. The Peace of Wild Things is one of his best known and best loved poems. This choral work for SSA and piano was commissioned by the Mississauga Children's Choir, Dr. Glenda Crawford, Director, and premiered June 2, 2016 at the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.

The Seal Lullaby                               Eric Whitacre, music
                                                           Rudyard Kipling, text

In the spring of 2004 I was lucky enough to have my show Paradise Lost presented at the ASCAP Music Theatre Workshop. The workshop is the brainchild of legendary composer Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Godspell), and his insights about the creative process were profoundly helpful. He became a great mentor and friend to the show and, I am honored to say, to me personally.

Soon after the workshop I received a call from a major film studio. Stephen had recommended me to them and they wanted to know if I might be interested in writing music for an animated feature. I was incredibly excited, said yes, and took the meeting.

The creative execs with whom I met explained that the studio heads had always wanted to make an epic adventure, a classic animated film based on Kipling's The Seal Lullaby. I have always loved animation (the early Disney films; Looney Tunes; everything Pixar makes) and I couldn't believe that I might get a chance to work in that grand tradition on such great material.

The Seal Lullaby
 is a beautiful story, classic Kipling, dark and rich and not at all condescending to kids. Best of all, Kipling begins his tale with the mother seal singing softly to her young pup. I was struck to deeply by those first beautiful words, and a simple, sweet Disney-esque song just came gushing out of me. I wrote it down as quickly as I could, had my wife record it while I accompanied her at the piano, and then dropped it off at the film studio. 

I didn't hear anything from them for weeks and weeks, and I began to despair. Did they hate it? Was it too melodically complex? Did they ever listen to it? Finally I called them, begging to know the reason that they had rejected my tender little song. "Oh," said the exec, "we decided to make Kung Fu Panda instead."

So I didn't do anything with it, just sang it to my baby son every night to get him to go to sleep. (Success rate: less than 50%). And a few years later the Towne Singers graciously commissioned this arrangement of it. I'm grateful to them for giving it a new life. And I'm especially grateful to Stephen Schwartz, to whom the piece is dedicated. His friendship and invaluable tutelage has meant more to me than I could ever tell him. - Whitacre


No Time                                               Traditional Camp Meeting Songs arr. Susan Brumfield
This arrangement combines two camp meeting songs; "Rise, Oh Fathers" and "No Time". When sung separately, each goes through the entire progressions of "fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sinners," before concluding. Both songs were collected by Loman Cansler from Kansas City, Missouri, who learned them from his grandfather, James Reuben Broyles, a Missouri preacher. The arranger first heard the two songs performed at a medley at the San Antonio Folklife Festival in August 1991. - Susan Brumfield


Your Soul Is Song                 Jake Runestad 
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