BE NEAR ME for unaccompanied mixed choir (SATB) by Greg Bartholomew, a setting of Canto 50 from the poem In Memoriam A.H.H. by the British Poet Laureate Alfred Tennyson (1809 -1892). Published in 1850, the poem is an extended requiem for the poet's beloved friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1833, age 22, and is considered one of the greatest poems of the 19th Century. It was reported to be a great favorite of Queen Victoria.

The recording is by Matthew Curtis and Sarah Brailey of Choral Tracks.

Sheet music is available from J. W. Pepper.

For more info: http://www.gregbartholomew.com/benearmeindex.html 

Canto 50
by Alfred Tennyson

Be near me when my light is low, 
When the blood creeps, and the nerves prick 
And tingle; and the heart is sick, 
And all the wheels of Being slow. 

Be near me when the sensuous frame 
Is racked with pangs that conquer trust; 
And Time, a maniac scattering dust, 
And Life, a Fury slinging flame. 

Be near me when my faith is dry, 
And men the flies of latter spring, 
That lay their eggs, and sting and sing 
And weave their petty cells and die. 

Be near me when I fade away, 
To point the term of human strife, 
And on the low dark verge of life 
The twilight of eternal day.

Be Near Me (Choral Tracks)

A noir detective love song…

BABY BLUE ROSES

I don’t care how sweet the kiss,
I never thought it’d be like this. 
I’ll always be true to you. 
It always comes down to you. 

You know my shoes fit only you, oh darling. 
I know your shoes fit only me, oh baby.
….

Your dad says I’m no good for you.  Whatever.  
Your mother thinks I’m trouble too.  How clever. 

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday’s all the same. 
You know every day’s a killer baby when we play their game. 

I don’t care what your folks said.
I never thought I’d find you dead. 
It always comes down, love.

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday, weekends too.
It’s like every day is murder babe if I can’t be with you.   
...

Trumpet: Matt Burke
Vocals: Greg Bartholomew

Baby Blue Roses

Baby Blue Roses (vocal)

PURPLE MARTINS was commissioned by Constellation Men's Ensemble as part of their 2025 NOVA Music Series in Chicago.  Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) was an American poet. Much of his work concerned Chicago, where he worked as a reporter. He earned three Pulitzer Prizes for his poetry and for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. His poem Purple Martins first appeared in a collection titled Smoke and Steel, published in 1920.

Purple Martins
by Carl Sandburg

If we were such and so, the same as these,
maybe we too would be slingers and sliders,
tumbling half over in the water mirrors,
tumbling half over at the horse heads of the sun,
tumbling our purple numbers.

Twirl on, you and your satin blue.
Be water birds, be air birds.
Be these purple tumblers you are.

Dip and get away
From loops into slip-knots,
Write your own ciphers and figure eights.
It is your wooded island here in Lincoln park.
Everybody knows this belongs to you.

Five fat geese
Eat grass on a sod bank
And never count your slinging ciphers,
your sliding figure eights.

A man on a green paint iron bench,
Slouches his feet and sniffs in a book,
And looks at you and your loops and slip-knots,
And looks at you and your sheaths of satin blue,
And slouches again and sniffs in the book,
And mumbles: It is an idle and a doctrinaire exploit.
Go on tumbling half over in the water mirrors.
Go on tumbling half over at the horse heads of the sun.
Be water birds, be air birds.
Be these purple tumblers you are.

Purple Martins (Constellation Men's Ensemble)

Commissioned by Noreen Jacky for her husband Jon on the occasion of their 25th wedding anniversary, "Beneath the Apple Tree" is constructed from a quotation from Edvard Grieg's Wedding Day at Troldhaugen, a musical memory from the Jackys' wedding.

Recorded by Kim Trolier, flute, and Ovidiu Marinescu, cello, Beneath the Apple Tree has been released by Navona Records on their CD titled Moto Perpetuo. The CD recording was made possible with generous support from 40 Kickstarter project backers.

For more info:  www.gregbartholomew.com/appleindex.html 

Beneath The Apple Tree (Kim Trolier & Ovidiu Marinescu)

The premiere performance by Denise Stillwell, violin, and Yumi Suehiro, piano, September 9, 2012, on the Composer's Voice concert series at the Jan Hus Church, New York City.

In Seaspray, Barefoot imagines a young person running down from sand dunes into the ocean and being chased by the waves back up into the dunes, in a playful dance.

Originally composed for violin & piano, alternate arrangements are available for tuba & piano, clarinet & piano, euphonium & piano, flugelhorn & piano and flute & piano. The flute & piano arrangement includes alternate versions for C flute and alto flute. 

A guitar accompaniment is also available for violin, clarinet or alto flute in an arrangement by Rodrigo Baggio.

www.gregbartholomew.com/seasprayindex.html 

In Seaspray Barefoot (Denise Stillwell)

For Every Love a Place TTBB - Balanced Voices - Greg Bartholomew - 1/1

American trumpeter James Ackley recorded "Red Cherry Lark," part 3 of Greg Bartholomew's "Summer Suite" with the Palmetto Camerata for his CD "New American Works for Trumpet."

New American Works for Trumpet

Summer Suite part 3 - Red Cherry Lark - James Ackley

Willa Cather (1873-1947) was an American writer best known for her novels of frontier life on the Great Plains.  Prairie Spring was first published in 1913 as the prologue to the novel O Pioneers! 

Sheet music is available from J. W. Pepper:  https://www.jwpepper.com/11208222.item

PRAIRIE SPRIN:  

Evening and the flat land, 
Rich and sombre and always silent; 
The miles of fresh-plowed soil, 
Heavy and black, full of strength and harshness; 
The growing wheat, the growing weeds, 
The toiling horses, the tired men; 
The long empty roads, 
Sullen fires of sunset, fading, 
The eternal, unresponsive sky. 
 
Against all this, Youth, 
Flaming like the wild roses, 
Singing like the larks over the plowed fields, 
Flashing like a star out of the twilight; 
Youth with its insupportable sweetness, 
Its fierce necessity, Its sharp desire, 
Singing and singing, 
Out of the lips of silence, 
Out of the earthy dusk.


For more info:  http://www.gregbartholomew.com/prairieindex.html

Prairie Spring (Matt Curtis demo)

Ackley 1d Fantini_1 - Base Take

The music of award-winning composer Greg Bartholomew is frequently performed across the United States and in Canada, Australia and Europe by such highly regarded instrumental ensembles as Third Angle New Music Ensemble, the Electrum Brass Trio, and the Spring Wind Quintet, as well as such acclaimed choral ensembles as Seattle Pro Musica, Austin Vocal Arts Ensemble, and Connecticut Choral Artists (CONCORA).  NPR classical music reviewer Tom Manoff called Bartholomew “a fine composer not afraid of accessibility.” 

A Finalist for the 2012 American Prize in Choral Composition, Bartholomew served as the 2012/2013 Composer in Residence for the Cascadian Chorale.  

Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1957, Bartholomew earned degrees from the College of William &amp; Mary and the University of Washington.  His music is published by ART OF SOUND MUSIC, ARS NOVA PRESS, IMAGINE MUSIC, ORPHEUS MUSIC and BURKE &amp; BAGLEY.  

Awards and Honors
✪	Finalist for the 2012 American Prize in Choral Composition
✪	Winner of the 2012 Cheryl A. Spector Prize for the First Suite from Razumov 
✪	ChoralNet CCMC Composer of the Month for April 2012
✪	Winner of the Silver Platter Repertoire Award in March 2012 for The Tree 
✪	Finalist in the 2010 Seghizzi Choral Festival Composition Competition for The Tree. 
✪	Honorable Mention in both the 2010 Pathways Contest for Summer Suite and the 2010 Fusion Contest for The Far North Land. 
✪	First Place in the 2006 Orpheus Music Composition Competition for Beneath the Apple Tree for viola da gamba and recorder
✪	Winner of the Masterworks Prize from ERM Media in 2005 and 2006 for the First Suite from Razumov and On the Ground Where We Live

Commercial Recordings  
* The Tree recorded by The Esoterics. 
* Summer Suite was recorded by internationally acclaimed trumpet solo artist James Ackley for his 2012 CD: New American Works for Trumpet.
* String Trio for George Crumb is available on the Langroise Trio’s CD Volante.  MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL says, “You will enjoy this work immensely and want to hear more.”
* On the Ground Where We Live was recorded by the Czech Philharmonic for the Masterworks of the New Era CD series. 
* The First Suite from Razumov was recorded by members of the Kiev Philharmonic, for the Masterworks of the New Era CD series.  
* Bartholomew’s choral setting of excerpts from Kofi Annan’s Nobel Peace Prize Lecture, The 21st Century (A Girl Born in Afghanistan), is available on CD from Connecticut Choral Artists (CONCORA). 
* The Ars Brunensis Chorus recording of Bartholomew’s three choral settings From the Odes of Solomon is available from Capstone Records. 

For further information visit www.gregbartholomew.com.