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)

"From Ode 14 of the Odes of Solomon" by Greg Bartholomew recorded by the Ars Brunensis Chorus. 

More info: www.gregbartholomew.com/odesindex.html

From Ode 14 of the Odes of Solomon (Ars Brunensis Chorus)

"From Odes 1 & 3 of the Odes of Solomon" by Greg Bartholomew recorded by the Ars Brunensis Chorus. 

More info: www.gregbartholomew.com/odesindex.html

From Odes 1 & 3 of the Odes of Solomon (Ars Brunensis Chorus)

"From Ode 17 of the Odes of Solomon" by Greg Bartholomew recorded by the Ars Brunensis Chorus. 

More info: www.gregbartholomew.com/odesindex.html

From Ode 17 of the Odes of Solomon (Ars Brunensis Chorus)

"For Every Love a Place" is a setting for unaccompanied men's chorus of the poem "To a Friend" by James Fenimore Cooper (1892-1918), the great-grandson of the novelist. A graduate of Yale, Cooper died of pneumonia at Cap Dix, New Jersey, the first member of his class to die in service during World War I. To a Friend was published posthumously in 1918 in a collection titled Afterglow, some of which had previously appeared in the Yale Literary Magazine. Captain Cooper is described therein as having "a character which never departed from the determination to do what was right and to be kind and just to all."

Sheet music is available from J.W.Pepper: www.jwpepper.com/10652808.item

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

To a Friend

Thy voice, as tender as the light
That shivers low at eve --
Thy hair, where myriad flashes bright
Do in and outward weave --
Thy charms in their diversity
Half frighten and astonish me.

Thy hands, that move above the keys
With eager touch and swift --
Whereby thy mind, with magic ease
Doth into music drift --
They fill me with a strange delight
That doth defy expression quite.

Thine eyes, that hold a mirth subdued
Like deep pools scattering fire --
Mine dare not meet them in their mood,
For fear of my desire,
Lest thou that secret do descry
Which evermore I must deny.

Thy very quiet dignity
Thy silence, too, I love--
Nay-- thy light word is destiny
Decreed in spheres above --
My mind, my heart is bowed to thee,
And hard it is that I must flee.

Hard is the world that does not give
For every love a place;
Hard is the power that bids us live
A life bereft of grace -
Hard, hard to lose thy figure, dear,
My star and my religion here!

For Every Love a Place (Matt Curtis)

Published in December 1920 in Harper's Magazine and again in 1923 in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book New Hampshire, Fire and Ice is one of Robert Frost's most popular poems. Some have asserted that the poem is a compression of Dante's Inferno. In an anecdote he recounted in 1960, prominent astronomer Harlow Shapley claimed to have inspired Fire and Ice in an encounter with Frost a year before the poem was published. Frost asked Shapley how the world will end, and Shapley responded that either the sun will explode and incinerate the Earth, or the Earth will somehow escape this fate only to end up slowly freezing in deep space.

Sheet music for FIRE AND ICE is available from J.W. Pepper:  https://www.jwpepper.com/Fire-and-Ice/11129789.item# 

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

Fire and Ice by Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

Fire and Ice (Matt Curtis demo)

"The Tree" is a setting for unaccompanied SATB mixed choir of the poem by American transcendental poet Jones Very (1813 - 1880).  This recording is from a performance by the chamber choir of Chorus Austin, under conductor Ryan Heller, on February 22, 2020.  

More info: www.gregbartholomew.com/treeindex.html

Songs of the Earth

The Tree (Chorus Austin)

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)

INVITATION TO LOVE is available both for unaccompanied mixed choir (SATB) and for solo/unison chorus with piano accompaniment.  The text is a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872 - 1906).  Dunbar was born in Dayton, Ohio, and published his first poems at age 16. He gained fame as a a poet, novelist and playwright, and wrote the lyrics for the musical comedy In Dahomey (1903), the first all-African-American musical produced on Broadway.

Recording by Matthew Curtis & Sarah Brailey (Choral Tracks). 

For more information: 
http://www.gregbartholomew.com/invitationindex.html

Invitation to Love (Mixed Choir)

INVITATION TO LOVE is available both for unaccompanied mixed choir (SATB) and for solo/unison chorus with piano accompaniment.  The text is a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872 - 1906).  Dunbar was born in Dayton, Ohio, and published his first poems at age 16. He gained fame as a a poet, novelist and playwright, and wrote the lyrics for the musical comedy In Dahomey (1903), the first all-African-American musical produced on Broadway.

Recording by Sarah Brailey (Choral Tracks). 

For more information: 
http://www.gregbartholomew.com/invitationindex.html

Invitation to Love (Unison/Solo)

The music of award-winning composer Greg Bartholomew is frequently performed across the United States and in Canada, Australia and Europe by such highly 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 & Mary and the University of Washington. His music is published by ART OF SOUND MUSIC, ARS NOVA PRESS, IMAGINE MUSIC, ORPHEUS MUSIC and BURKE & 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.

Greg Bartholomew Choral

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