Lux Aeterna by Joshua Himes 
Voices of Terpsichor, dir. Elvin Dioquino 
First Presbyterian Church of Orange
[LIVE] November 17th, 2024

Dedicated to the millions lost and affected by the Covid-19 pandemic (2022)

Lux Aeterna | Voices of Terpsichor (2024)

Vivida In Tempore by Joshua Himes
Lyrics by Filippo Sirotti

Ft. Rhienstimmen conducted by Joshua Himes
Reiner Schneider-Waterberg (artistic director)
[LIVE] January 5th, 2025 at Antoniuskirche, Basel

Modern Latin poem (c. 1988)

Vivida in tempore transire nolente 
permagna florescit in pectore vis 
continenter pellens me dicere: "nos"

et lumine solis extremo dilapso
in caelo inter alias te incipio requirere stellas
quod secum te sentiens dulcedine noctis 
expectans laetatur animus meus
et loca nulla illi remota


English translation

In the time that doesn't want to pass 
in my heart I feel a strength
that pushes me to say: "us"

And when the sun has gone
I look for you in the sky among the other stars
As my soul is with you in the sweet night 
and feels happy waiting for you
because nowhere is far

Vivida In Tempore | Rheinstimmen (EU Premiere)

Performed by Indiana Wesleyan University Chorale, conducted by Davy Chinn.

INTO YOUR HANDS

In the shadow of death, we must not look to the past, 
but seek in utter darkness the dawn of God.

And it seems to me the only and greatest prayer we can make, 
in those hours when our path darkens before us,
is that of our Master on the Cross:
In manus tuas commendo spiritum meum.
Into your hands I entrust my spirit.

To the hands that broke and quickened the bread, 
which blessed and caressed, which were pierced— 
to the hands that are like our own—
to the sweet and powerful hands that reach
to the marrow of the soul, that form and create— 
when we suffer or are afraid, it is good
to surrender our soul to these hands so full of love.

In the shadow of death, we must not look to the past, 
but seek in utter darkness the dawn of God.

—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (translated and adapted by the composer)

Into Your Hands | Dale Trumbore

"Babe & Barnette” by Joshua Himes 

Act I - Scene 2 
From "Crimes Of The Heart"

Play synopsis:
Set in 1974 Hazlehurst, Mississippi, this tragicomedy follows three sisters—Meg, Babe, and Lenny—reunited after the youngest sister (Babe) shoots her abusive husband. As they confront meddling relatives, old relationships, and buried resentments, the sisters must face the fallout from Babe’s “crimes of the heart.”

Directed by Christopher Diehl 
Rialto Community Players

Rialto, California
September 2018

Crimes Of The Heart - II. Babe & Barnette (2018)

The Realm by Joshua Himes
 from “Two Old Love Songs”

soloist: Anna Caplan

Voices of Terpsichor, dir. Elvin Dioquino 
 First Presbyterian Church of Orange
  [LIVE] September 5th, 2025 (World Premiere)

Text by Emily Dickinson
 “I have no Life but this" (c. 1877)

  I have no Life but this —
  To lead it here —
  Nor any Death —  but lest
  Dispelled from there —

  Nor tie to Earths to come —
  Nor Action new —
  Except through this extent — 
  The Realm of you —

The Realm | Voices of Terpsichor (World Premiere)

i am so glad and very by Joshua Himes
 from “Two Old Love Songs”

 soloists: Anna Caplan, Marina Gomez,
  David Morales, Samuel Avila, Rebecca Tomasko, 
  Andrea Church, Brandon Guzman, and Sean Gabel

Voices of Terpsichor, dir. Elvin Dioquino 
 First Presbyterian Church of Orange
  [LIVE] September 5th, 2025 (US Premiere)

Text by E.E. Cummings
 “i am so glad and very" (c. 1940)

  i am so glad and very
  merely my fourth will cure
  the laziest self of weary
  the hugest sea of shore

  so far your nearness reaches
  a lucky fifth of you
  turns people into eachs
  and cowards into grow

  our can'ts were born to happen
  our mosts have died in more
  our twentieth will open
  wide a wide open door

  we are so both and oneful
  night cannot be so sky
  sky cannot be so sunful
  i am through you so i

i am so glad and very | Voices of Terpsichor (US Premiere)

For more information about All We Need, visit daletrumbore.com/allweneed. 

Annie Finch's poem “Earth Day” is a celebration of all that the planet offers us, as well as a plea to respect what we find here. The recurring refrain of the piece is simple, but profound: “all we need” is to find love in what we already have, both in the “faces of the people we love” and on the earth itself. 

This recording features The Esoterics, directed by Eric Banks. All We Need was commissioned from by the Ithaca College Choir, Janet Galván, conductor. This piece was begun at Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts (Saratoga, WY).

EARTH DAY

All we want is to find the love
in the faces of the people we love.
All we need is to find the dark
in the nighttime sky, to lie down to sleep
in the darkness, where stars and moon keep vigil,
in the silence of a sleeping earth.
All we require is to wake to sunlight
in the morning, to simple sky,
to breathe aloud as the sky is breathing,
to drink the water of the earth.
​All we need is to touch the planet
and find it clean where we were born,
where our ancestors breathed and planted,
where we live with the plants and birds.
All we need is to live with the memory
of a future we want to imagine.
​All we want is to find the love
​in the face of the planet we love.

—Annie Finch
From Spells: New and Selected Poems (Wesleyan University Press, 2013)

All We Need

Purchase this score for performance: https://musicspoke.com/downloads/as-it-is-in-heaven.
Follow along with the perusal score: http://bit.ly/heavenperusal
 
In the text for Dale Trumbore's anthem "As it is in Heaven" for SATB & organ, Leo Tolstoy describes how he prays daily in solitude, adding biblical verses to each line of the Lord's Prayer. Here, a familiar prayer takes on a new meaning through Tolstoy's intimately personal perspective. The music contrasts the familiarity of a homophonic, hymn-like setting for the words of the Lord's Prayer with overlapping, independent melodies for Tolstoy's additions and personal musings.

"As it is in Heaven" sets an excerpt from Leo Tolstoy's essay “On Reason, Faith and Prayer.” This piece was commissioned by Christ Church Cathedral, Robert Simpson, Canon for Music, for the National Convention of the American Guild of Organists Houston, Texas, 2016.

AGO Conference 2016

As it is in Heaven

Preview the score at www.daletrumbore.com/newlyfreed.

As Laura Foley's poem “Like Something Newly Freed” progresses, we shift from observing blackbirds at sunset to narrating from their perspective as we imagine ourselves among them. This setting of Foley's text attempts to capture that desire for freedom and flight in our own lives.
​
Like Something Newly Freed was commissioned by California ACDA for the 2017 California All-State Mixed Honor Choir (Dr. Amanda Quist, Conductor). Preview the score or purchase it for performance through MusicSpoke: bit.ly/newlyfreed.
 
TEXT
 
When you watch blackbirds flocking
in silhouette
against bare trees, against
a salmon sky, you wonder
at the sight, at the lift
you feel inside, the wings
and all that space.
As night begins,
you raise black wings
like leaves, like the lightness of a song.
As night hurries in,
you streak across the darkening sky
like something newly freed
and gaining, gaining on the sun.
​
—Laura Foley

ACDA All-State Honor Choir Concert 2

Like Something Newly Freed

Joshua Himes (b. 1987) is an American composer and music director whose choral works are performed around the world by acclaimed vocal ensembles including Tenebrae (UK), Cantus (Norway), Camerata Lacunensis (Spain), the Philippine Madrigal Singers, Sjaella (Germany), the Mt. SAC Chamber Singers, and the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles. He is a member of ASCAP and the American Choral Directors Association, with works published by Gentry Publications, Santa Barbara Music Publishing, and MusicSpoke.

Himes’s music has been described as “delightfully free, expressive, [and] engaging” (Classic Melbourne) and praised for its “beautiful melodies [and] lush chords” (Viewpoints, Riverside City College). Tightly woven harmonies are a hallmark of his style, often celebrated for their accessibility without compromise. The British Library highlighted “a superb performance of the Gloria” that was sung by the Suanplu Chorus from Indonesia. His most widely performed piece, Ave Maria, offers “great beauty and accessibility without being trite” and “gives the singers constant opportunity for expressive singing” (MusicSpoke, Kurt Kneckt), while Kyrie is recognized as “a great festival piece for high school and college choirs” (Presto Music, Bruce Rogers Choral Series).

In December 2024, Himes traveled to Switzerland to meet and conduct Tenebrae for the premiere of his work "i am so glad and very" at the Klassik Sterne Festival. The event marked a significant milestone, reinforcing his reputation as a composer whose choral music resonates deeply with both singers and audiences worldwide. His collaborations with ensembles locally and abroad reflect a dedicated, hands-on approach that helps bridge the gap between composers and performers. 

Based in his hometown of Chino Hills, California, Joshua works full time at a longstanding residential treatment program for at-risk youth and is an occasional actor and music director in his local theater community.

Lux Aeterna | Voices of Terpsichor (2024)

Joshua Himes

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