Earth, Mother • TTBB chorus and percussion • ca. 4'30''
artist: University of Michigan Men's Glee Club, Mark Stover, conductor
publisher: MariValverde.com MVC-243

EARTH, MOTHER! Hear our cries!

The river that flows, flows in our blood. 		
We pulsate with forces of nature.

The tide that moves, moves with our breath. 	
We rise and swell as the ocean.		

The water that surges, surges through our song
And sustains us in our fight. 

We flow and we rise.
	
We surge and we fight.

Earth, Mother! Water is life.

Earth, Mother! Hear our cries! 	

The fire that burns, burns like our rage.		
We pulsate with forces of nature.

The inferno that roars, roars from our throats.
We rise and swell with shouts of protest.

Our torch that blazes, catches like wildfire.
We surge in our collective power.	

We rage and we roar. 

We protest and we rise.
       
Mother Earth! Hear our cries!

text: Sherry Blevins

"Mother Earth, Hear our Cries" Copyright © 2023 by Sherry Blevins. Used with Permission.
Music Copyright © 2024 by Mari Esabel Valverde. All Rights Reserved.

Image: "Shot on Pennsylvania Ave near the Capitol" by Vlad Tchompalov on Unsplash

Earth, Mother (TTBB)

Après un rêve (After a Dream) • SSAATTBB chorus a cappella • ca. 5'30''
artist: St. Olaf Choir
publisher: MariValverde.com MVC-081

DANS un sommeil
que charmait ton image
Je rêvais le bonheur,
ardent mirage;
Tes yeux étaient plus doux,
ta voix pure et sonore,
éclairé par l’aurore.

Tu m’appelais
et je quittais la terre
Pour m’enfuir avec toi
vers la lumière;
Les cieux pour nous,
entr’ouvraient leurs nues,
Splendeurs inconnues,
lueurs divines entrevues...


Hélas, hélas,
triste réveil des songes!
Je t’appelle, ô nuit,
rends-moi tes mensonges;
Reviens, reviens radieuse,
Reviens, ô nuit mystérieuse!

text: Romain Bussine

•

DURING slumber
charmed by your image
I dreamt of happiness,
a passionate illusion;
Your eyes were so soft,
your voice pure and rich,
You were radiant as a sky
illuminated by dawn.

You called my name
and I left the earth
To flee with you
toward the light;
The heavens for us,
parted their clouds,
Unknown splendors,
glimpses of divine light…

Alas, alas,
sad awakening of dreams!
I call you, o night,
bring back to me your illusions;
Return, return, radiant,
Return, oh mysterious night!

translation: Mari Esabel Valverde

Copyright © 2008 Mari Esabel Valverde. All rights reserved.

Image: "Sleepless Night" (1893) by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Après un rêve (SSAATTBB)

Our Phoenix • SATB chorus, piano, and trumpet • ca. 4'
Audio Courtesy of St. Olaf College. Used by Permission.
artist: St. Olaf Chapel Choir
publisher: MariValverde.com MVC-154

MY DEAR Beautiful People, each time you are broken, I break, I break,
I break a little more, then un-break.
I am piecing myself back together with the care of a potter’s hands.
I clay phoenix.

I feel the heat of our resurrections burning to glaze our skin into glow;
my fire and my kiln are these words, this space, the intimate threads of our connection.

I envision us going on to eclipse, building, bigger, bigger, bigger, more luminous!
So bright!

My beautiful people, our breaking is our making.

[Let] us dream towards what we want beyond survival.
Let us dream towards loving ourselves till we become love over and over again.
My beautiful people, I can taste our honeyed victory!
My beautiful people, our dangerous sweetness is our rebellion!
(excerpt from "Our Dangerous Sweetness")

text: Amir Rabiyah

Copyright © 2015 Mari Esabel Valverde. All rights reserved.

Image: "Fire Phoenix" (Stock Photo Art)

St. Olaf Spring Choral Showcase

Our Phoenix (SATB)

Comfort and Joy • SATB chorus and piano • ca. 4'30''
artist: University of South Carolina Concert Choir
publisher: MariValverde.com MVC-214

IN THE LITTLE winter town, beneath the glass,
A child alone, in a pale blue coat,
Arms stretched out to greet the swirling snow,
Dances in comfort and joy.

The snow falls sure and steady here;
Ever new this bed of purest white.
All have fled inside, except the child
Dancing in comfort and joy.

What songs fill her fragile sphere?
What long dreaming do they tell?
The many paths she could have taken,
The women she could have become,

This forever girl, gazing upward,
Frozen in this snowy moment
All wrapped up in palest blue,
And dancing in comfort and joy...?

text: Charles Anthony Silvestri

Copyright © 2021 by Mari Esabel Valverde. All rights reserved.

Image: "A Town Qualified as a World Heritage" by Takahiro Taguchi on Unsplash

A Holiday Garland of Choirs

Comfort and Joy (SATB)

De colores (Made in Color) • SA chorus, soprano solo, and piano or SSA chorus and piano • ca. 2'
artist: Texas Lutheran University Treble Choir and soprano Liliana Guerrero
publisher: La Voz Music Publishing

DE COLORES se visten los campos
en la primavera.
De colores son los pajaritos
que vienen de afuera.
De colores es el arco iris
que vemos lucir.

Y por eso los grandes amores
de muchos colores me gustan a mí.

De colores brillantes y finos
se viste la aurora.
De colores son los mil reflejos
que el sol atesora.
De colores se viste el diamante
que vemos lucir.

Y por eso los grandes amores
de muchos colores me gustan a mí.

Text: Traditional/Folk

•

THE COUNTRYSIDE is dressed in color
in the springtime.
The birds arrive in many colors
from far away.
The rainbow paints the sky in colors
that shine on us.

And that’s why loving many colors
brings joy to my life.

Adorned in brilliant, vivid color
the dawn appears,
A thousand reflections of colors
held by the sun.
The diamond flaunts its colors
that shine on us.

And that’s why loving many colors
brings joy to my life.

Translation: Mari Esabel Valverde

Copyright © 2022 Mari Esabel Valverde. All rights reserved.

Image: "Ripped Rainbow-Colored Paper Background" by Katie Rainbow on Unsplash

This Broken World Embrace

De colores (SSA)

Patterns on the Snow • SATB chorus and piano • ca. 3'30''
Audio Courtesy of Los Angeles Master Chorale. Used by Permission.
Artist: Los Angeles Master Chorale
Publisher: Walton Music

LOSE THE PAIN in the snow
Where all footsteps melt
And the magic trance
Bids you rise and follow
Forgetting all you felt
Except the dance, except the dance.

Lose the pain in the love
Where all being flows
Though the step is intricate
Still as through the dance you move
Silently the pattern grows
To include, not to reject.

Lose the pain in the living
Where the self however haunted
Dances on because it must,
All forgiving, all forgiving.
Lose again all that you wanted
Except trust, except trust.

Lose the pain in the faith
Gladly as the dance grows graver,
Love and living both let go,
Love and pain be danced to death
Let the dancer never waver
Drawing patterns on the snow.

from Two Songs, Nº 1 from Three Poems by May Sarton
in the August 1949 ed. of Poetry Magazine

Music: Copyright © October 2022 Mari Esabel Valverde. All Rights Reserved.
Text: Reprinted with permission from Russell and Volkening as agents for the author.

Image: "Snow Flake" by Marc Newberry on Unsplash

Unknown

Patterns on the Snow (SATB)

A Green Voice • SATB chorus and piano • ca. 3'30"
Artist: University of New Hampshire Chamber Singers
Publisher: MariValverde.com MVC-231

WHATEVER COLD TONES
an empty sky echoes
after birds vanish
from meadow and tree,
and bright hues of color
fade as the flowers lie
buried in snow above
roots sealed in frost,
if the tunes grow faint
in the ear of your memory
and the country of your silence
seems windswept and bare,
give sun to this plant
that I bring you for Easter,
this small tree risen
with love from its earth,
and listen as soft leaves
unfold note by note,
it will add a green voice
to the time you need singing. 

text: James Hearst

"A Green Voice" Copyright © 2001 by University of Iowa Press. Used with Permission of the UNI Foundation.
Music Copyright © February 2023 by Mari Esabel Valverde (ASCAP). All Rights Reserved.

Image: Untitled by Kumiko Shimizu on Unsplash

A Green Voice (SATB)

Skin • SSAA chorus and piano • ca. 4'
Artist: 21V Choir
Publisher: MariValverde.com MVC-201

SKIN REMEMBERS how long the years grow
when skin is not touched, a gray tunnel
of singleness, feather lost from the tail
of a bird, swirling onto a step,
swept away by someone who never saw
it was a feather. Skin ate, walked,
slept by itself, knew how to raise a
see-you-later hand. But skin felt
it was never seen, never known as
a land on the map, nose like a city,
hip like a city, gleaming dome of the mosque
and the hundred corridors of cinnamon and rope.

Skin had hope, that’s what skin does.
Heals over the scarred place, makes a road.
Love means you breathe in two countries.
And skin remembers—silk, spiny grass,
deep in the pocket that is skin’s secret own.
Even now, when skin is not alone,
it remembers being alone and thanks something larger
that there are travelers, that people go places
larger than themselves.

text: Naomi Shihab Nye

“Two Countries” from Words Under the Words: Selected Poems by Naomi Shihab Nye, Copyright © 1995. Used with the permission of the author and Far Corner Books. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
Music Copyright © January 2020 Mari Esabel Valverde. All Rights Reserved.

Image: "A Walk toward Free Spaces" by Éric Deschaintre on Unsplash

Skin (SSAA)

De colores (TBB)

Before Spring • TTBB chorus a cappella • ca. 3'
artist: Cantus
publisher: MariValverde.com MVC-221

TWO LOVERS, splayed across the grass
light streaked rivers
Or bones of boats caressing the water
Moaning towards the shore

Conjugating kisses
Mouths blessing one another’s necks
into wet vowels, pressing
their hands into folds of the giving earth

Two lovers, their bodies’ edges blurred by sweat
& a quickening desire—lose time and let go
And the trees, the trees,
shake the last of the frost

Before the coming of Spring

text: Amir Rabiyah

Copyright © 2022 Mari Esabel Valverde. All rights reserved.

Image: "California Blooming Like Crazy After Months of Non-Stop Rains"
by Sergey Shmidt on Unsplash

Song of the Universal

Before Spring (TTBB)

Moonlight Quartet • string quartet • ca. 2'
artist: her ensemble
publisher: MariValverde.com

Copyright © 2012, 2020 Mari Esabel Valverde. All rights reserved.

Image: "sea under full moon" by Guzmán Barquín on Unsplash (magnified)

Forgotten in History

Moonlight Quartet (String Quartet)

We Hold Your Names Sacred • SATB chorus and piano • ca. 4'
artist: Hear Us, Hear Them Ensemble
publisher: MariValverde.com MVC-211

Sisters whose lives were taken
Memories of you
we sing
Note, chord, melody, harmony
psalm

Prayers
we offer with tears
Love
with words we give
High
we lift your spirit up
So you may know forever joy

Jaquarrius Holland
Chyna Gibson
Ty Underwood
Penny Proud
Crystal Edmonds
Islan Nettles
Angel Rose
Lexi
Layla Pelaez Sánchez
Muhlaysia Booker
Brianna “BB” Hill
Layleen Polanco

May your smile be made eternal
May justice be brought
with this refrain
Sisters we hold sacred your names 

text: Dane Figueroa Edidi

Copyright © 2021 Mari Esabel Valverde. All rights reserved.

Noise Over Silence; Action Over Stillness

We Hold Your Names Sacred (SATB)

Cantares (New Songs) • SSA chorus a cappella • ca. 3'
artist: Winter Park High School Belle Chanson
publisher: MariValverde.com MVC-133

DICE LA TARDE: "¡Tengo sed de sombra!"
Dice la luna: "¡Yo, sed de luceros!"
La fuente cristalina pide labios
y suspira el viento.

Yo tengo sed de aromas y de risas,
sed de cantares nuevos
sin lunas y sin lirios,
y sin amores muertos.

Un cantar de mañana que estremezca
a los remansos quietos
del porvenir. Y llene de esperanza
sus ondas y sus cienos.

Un cantar luminoso y reposado
pleno de pensamiento,
virginal de tristeza y de angustias
y virginal de ensueños.

Cantar sin carne lírica que llene
de risas el silencio
(una bandada de palomas ciegas
lanzadas al misterio).

Cantar que vaya al alma de las cosas
y al alma de los vientos
y que descanse al fin en la alegría
del corazón eterno.

Text: Federico García Lorca

•

THE AFTERNOON SAYS: “I thirst for shadow!”
The moon says: “I thirst for starshine!”
The crystal-clear spring demands lips
and the wind, sighs.

I thirst for fragrances and laughter,
thrist for new-made songs
without moons and lilies,
and dead loves.

A morning song which stirs
the still oases
of prospects. And which fills
their silt and waves with hope.

A luminous song laid to rest
full of thought,
naïve of sadness and anguish
and fantasy.

A song, stripped of lyric, which fills
the silence with laughter
(a flock of blind doves
thrown into mystery).

A song which goes to the soul of things
and to the soul of the winds
and which ultimately rests in joy
from the eternal heart.

Translation: Mari Esabel Valverde

Copyright © 2014 Mari Esabel Valverde. All rights reserved.

Image: "Seagull" by Aditya Saxena on Unsplash

Cantares (SSA)

Of More Heroic Temper • TTBB chorus and piano • ca. 4'
Artist: BRACE New Music Choir
Publisher: MariValverde.com MVC-161

A FACE SEEN PASSING in a crowded street,
A voice heard singing music, large and free;
And from that moment life is changed, and we
Become of more heroic temper, meet
To freely ask and give, a man complete
Radiant because of faith, we dare to be
What Nature meant us. Brave idolatry
Which can conceive a hero! No deceit,
No knowledge taught by unrelenting years,
Can quench this fierce, untamable desire.
We know that what we long for once achieved
Will cease to satisfy. Be still our fears;
If what we worship fail us, still the fire
Burns on, and it is much to have believed.

text: Amy Lowell

Copyright © January 2016 Mari Esabel Valverde. All Rights Reserved.

Image: "Burning Cold" by Cullan Smith on Unsplash

BRACE Fall Series 23

Of More Heroic Temper (TTBB)

Spring Concert 2024

Wildfire (TTBB)

Inundation (TTBB)

Look Down, Fair Moon • SSA chorus (div.) and piano • ca. 3'
artist: Chamber Singers of Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges, Maria Dell’Orefice, piano, Scott AuCoin, conductor
publisher: MariValverde.com MVC-233

LOOK DOWN, fair moon, and bathe this scene,
Pour softly down night's nimbus floods on faces ghastly, swollen, purple,
On the dead, on their backs, with arms toss'd wide,
Pour down your unstinted nimbus, sacred moon.
text: Walt Whitman

Copyright © 2023 Mari Esabel Valverde. All rights reserved.

Image: "Moon" by Spencer Arquimedes on Unsplash

Look Down, Fair Moon (SATB)

Hébé • SSA chorus and harp or piano • ca. 3'
artist: Baylor Bella Voce
publisher: Walton Music WLG151

LES YEUX BAISSÉS, rougissante et candide,
Vers leur banquet quand Hébé s'avançait.
Les Dieux charmés tendaient leur coupe vide,
Et de nectar l'enfant la remplissait.

Nous tous aussi, quand passe la jeunesse,
Nous lui tendons notre coupe à l'envi.
Quel est le vin qu'y verse la Déesse?
Nous l'ignorons; il enivre et ravit.

Ayant souri dans sa grâce immortelle,
Hébé s'éloigne; on la rappelle en vain.
Longtemps encor sur la route éternelle,
Notre œil en pleurs suit l'échanson divin.

Text: Louise-Victorine Ackermann

•

WITH EYES LOWERED, flushed and candid,
Toward their banquet when Hebe came forth,
The Gods, delighted, extended their empty cup,
And with nectar the Child refilled it.

All of us, also, when youth passes,
We extend our cup to her over and over again.
What is the wine that the Goddess pours there?
We do not know; it intoxicates and enchants.

Having smiled, in her immortal grace,
Hebe goes off in the distance; we call her again in vain.
Still, for a long time, on the eternal path,
Our eye in tears follows the divine cupbearer.

Translation: Mari Esabel Valverde

Copyright © 2015 Mari Esabel Valverde. All rights reserved.

Image: "Hebe Giving Drink to the Eagle of Jupiter" (1767) by Gavin Hamilton

Hébé (SSA)

The Cloths of Heaven • SATB chorus and piano • ca. 4'
artist: Seven Lakes High School Chorale
publisher: earthsongs S-341

HAD I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

text: William Butler Yeats

Copyright © 2010 Mari Esabel Valverde. All rights reserved.

Image: "Man Jumping on Hill During Golden Hour" by Kyle Cottrell on Unsplash

The Cloths of Heaven (SATB)

Look Down, Fair Moon • SSA chorus (div.) and piano • ca. 3'
artist: TMEA Region 2 All-District Treble Choir, Cheryl Wilson, conductor
publisher: MariValverde.com MVC-153

LOOK DOWN, fair moon, and bathe this scene,
Pour softly down night's nimbus floods on faces ghastly, swollen, purple,
On the dead, on their backs, with arms toss'd wide,
Pour down your unstinted nimbus, sacred moon.
text: Walt Whitman

Copyright © 2015 Mari Esabel Valverde. All rights reserved.

Image: "Moon" by Spencer Arquimedes on Unsplash

Look Down, Fair Moon (SSA)

Les Papillons (Butterflies) • SSA chorus and piano • ca. 1'30''
artist: Baylor Bella Voce
publisher: Walton Music WLG157

LES PAPILLONS couleur de neige
Volent par essaims sur la mer;
Beaux papillons blancs, quand pourrai-je
Prendre le bleu chemin de l'air?

Savez-vous, ô belle des belles,
Ma bayadère aux yeux de jais,
S'ils me voulaient prêter leurs ailes,
Dites, savez-vous où j'irais?

Sans prendre un seul baiser aux roses,
À travers vallons et forêts,
J'irais à vos lèvres mi-closes,
Fleur de mon âme,  et j'y mourrais.

Text: Théophile Gautier

•

THE BUTTERFLIES, the color of snow,
Fly in swarms over the sea;
Beautiful white butterflies, when will I be able
To take the blue path in the air?

Do you know, oh beauty of beauties,
My bayadere with eyes of ebony, 
If they were willing to lend their wings,
Say, do you know where I would go?

Without getting a single kiss from the roses,
Through the valleys and forests,
I would go to your half-closed lips,
Blossom of my soul, and there I would die.

Translation: Mari Esabel Valverde

Copyright © 2016 Mari Esabel Valverde. All rights reserved.

Image: "three butterflies pollinating on purple petaled flowers" by Karina Vorozheeva on Unsplash

Our Hope

Les Papillons (SSA)

Le Colibri (The Hummingbird) • SSA chorus and piano • ca. 3'30''
artist: Baylor Bella Voce
publisher: Walton Music WLG156

LE VERT COLIBRI, le roi des collines,
Voyant la rosée et le soleil clair
Luire dans son nid tissé d’herbes fines,
Comme un frais rayon s’échappe dans l’air.
Il se hâte et vole aux sources voisines,
Où les bambous font le bruit de la mer,
Où l’açoka rouge aux odeurs divines
S’ouvre et porte au cœur un humide éclair.

Vers la fleur dorée, il descend, se pose,
Et boit tant d’amour dans la coupe rose,
Qu’il meurt, ne sachant s’il l’a pu tarir!
Sur ta lèvre pure, ô ma bien-aimée,
Telle aussi mon âme eut voulu mourir,
Du premier baiser qui l’a parfumée.

Text: Leconte de Lisle

•

THE GREEN HUMMINGBIRD, the king of the hills,
Seeing the dew and the bright sun
Shine on its nest woven from fine grass,
Like a cool beam escapes into the air.
In haste, it flies to the neighboring springs,
Where the bamboo makes the sounds of the sea,
Where the hibiscus with its divine fragrance
Opens and brings to the heart a wet flash.

Toward the golden flower, it descends, has lain,
And sups so much love from the rosy cup
That it dies without knowing if it could have finished it.
On your bare lips, oh my beloved,
Like so, my soul wished to expire,
From the first kiss on which it left its scent.

Translation: Mari Esabel Valverde

Copyright © 2017 Mari Esabel Valverde. All rights reserved.

Image: "Hummingbird and Passionflowers" (ca. 1880) by Martin Johnson Heade

Le Colibri (SSA)

I Flow... I Am • SATB chorus (div.) a cappella • ca. 4'
artist: South Salem High School Symphonic Choir
publisher: MariValverde.com MVC-163

QUIET FRIEND who has come so far,
feel how your breathing makes more space around you.
Let this darkness be a bell tower
and you the bell. As you ring,

what batters you becomes your strength.
Move back and forth into the change.
What is it like, such intensity of pain?
If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine.

In this uncontainable night,
be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses,
the meaning discovered there.

And if the world has ceased to hear you,
say to the silent earth: I flow.
To the rushing water, speak: I am.

Text: Rainer Maria Rilke
Translation: Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows

Copyright © 2017 Mari Esabel Valverde. All rights reserved.

Image: (Untitled) by Henrik Eikefjord on Unsplash

OMEA District 4 Festival

I Flow... I Am (SATB)

Border Lines • SATB chorus and guitar or cello • ca. 5'
artist: Adams State University Chamber Choir, Marc Eaton, guitar

SOME MAPS have blue borders
like the blue of your name
or the tributary lacing of
veins running through your
father’s hands. & how the last
time I saw you, you held
me for so long I saw whole
lifetimes flooding by me
small tentacles reaching
for both our faces. I wish
maps would be without
borders & that we belonged
to no one & to everyone
at once, what a world that
would be. Or not a world
maybe we would call it
something more intrinsic
like forgiving or something
simplistic like river or dirt.
& if I were to see you
tomorrow & everyone you
came from had disappeared
I would weep with you & drown
out any black lines that this
earth allowed us to give it—
because what is a map but
a useless prison? We are all
so lost & no naming of blank
spaces can save us. & what
is a map but the delusion of
safety? The line drawn is always
in the sand & folds on itself
before we’re done making it.
& that line, there, south of
el río, how it dares to cover
up the bodies, as though we
would forget who died there
and for what? As if we could
forget that if you spin a globe
& stop it with your finger
you’ll land it on top of someone
living, someone who was not
expecting to be crushed by thirst—

text : Yesenia Montilla

Copyright © 2017 Mari Esabel Valverde. All rights reserved.

Image: "Close-up Photography of World Map" by Leon Overweel on Unsplash

Immigrant Stories: Hopes, Dreams, and Fears in Uncertain Times

Border Lines (SATB)

United in Song • solo voice or SATB chorus a cappella • ca. 2'30''
Artist: Lawrence University Viking Chorale
publisher: MariValverde.com MVC-173

THE BLUE, THE RED, the white, the black, the brown,
And all the colors in-between,
Women and men and everyone who breathes
Can sing along with me:
We dream of a land of a world
Brave enough, proud enough to be
United in song
To fight for justice and peace.

Your god, my god, our right to believe, or not—
We all eat from an earth that’s green.
All bodies, all minds, the young, and elderly,
We all want to be heard and seen.
We dream of a land of a world
Brave enough, proud enough to be
United in song
To fight for justice and peace.

Text: Mari Esabel Valverde

Copyright © September 2017 Mari Esabel Valverde. All Rights Reserved.

Fall Concert 2018

United in Song: An Anthem for Our Time (SATB)

Winter Ride • SATB chorus a cappella • ca. 2'30''
Artist: International Orange Chorale of San Francisco

WHO SHALL DECLARE the joy of the running!
Who shall tell of the pleasures of flight! 
Springing and spurning the tufts of wild heather,
Sweeping, wide-winged, through the blue dome of light.
Everything mortal has moments immortal,
Swift and God-gifted, immeasurably bright.

So with the stretch of the white road before me,  
Shining snowcrystals rainbowed by the sun, 
Fields that are white, stained with long, cool, blue shadows,
Strong with the strength of my horse as we run.  
Joy in the touch of the wind and the sunlight!
Joy! With the vigorous earth I am one.

Text: Amy Lowell

Copyright © September 2018 Mari Esabel Valverde. All Rights Reserved.

Image: "Snow Fox on Snow Field" by Jonatan Pie on Unsplash

Winter Ride (SATB)

Wondrous Glow • SATB chorus (div.) a cappella • ca. 4'30''
artist: Ensemble Companio, Erik Peregrine, conductor
soloist: Scott Hare
recording engineer: Mark Travis
details: Recorded live 11 May 2019 at Trinity Center for Urban Life, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

TODAY collect the dazzling shelter of flowers 
stitch a crown large enough for the globe
fragrant enough for satellites to lift their noses
take the prayer of night into your arms
as she sleeps, breathe with her
breathe with the night
there are times when there is nothing
left to do, but create
form the unseen into a tangible communion
of stardust, place the galaxy on your tongue
let your mouth be a wondrous glow
your words a beacon
when everything is lost
imagine yourself as more than an earth-
quaking body a gift
the streaking tail of a comet
become that which holds your eye
that which makes you gasp

Text: Amir Rabiyah

“Grand Design” Copyright © 2014 by Amir Rabiyah. Used with Permission of  the Author.
Music Copyright © March 2018 by Mari Esabel Valverde. All Rights Reserved. 

Image: "Person Holding Firecracker" by Wout Vanacker on Unsplash

Failed Saints (Philadelphia)

Wondrous Glow (SATB)

Oberlin Phlox Ensembles Inaugural Concerts

her first snow (String Orchestra)

Árbol adentro (A Tree Within) • high voice and piano • ca. 2'
artist: Matthew Valverde, tenor and Tim Burns, piano

CRECIÓ en mi frente un árbol,
Creció hacia dentro.
Sus raíces son venas,
nervios sus ramas,
sus confusos follajes pensamientos.
Tus miradas lo encienden
y sus frutos de sombra
son naranjas de sangre,
son granadas de lumbre.
				Amanece
en la noche del cuerpo.
Allá adentro, en mi frente,
el árbol habla.
			Acércate, ¿lo oyes?

text: Octavio Paz

•

A TREE grew inside my head.
A tree grew in.
Its roots are veins,
its branches nerves,
thoughts its tangled foliage.
Your glance sets it on fire,
and its fruits of shade
are blood oranges
and pomegranates of flame.
					Day breaks
in the body’s night.
There, within, inside my head,
the tree speaks.
			Come closer—can you hear it?

translation: Eliot Weinberger

Text used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.
Copyright © 2012 Mari Esabel Valverde. All rights reserved.

Image: (Untitled) by Filip Mishevski on Unsplash

Árbol adentro (Art Song)

Las armas del verano (The Arms of Summer) • high voice and piano • ca. 3'
artist: Matthew Valverde, tenor and Tim Burns, piano

OYE la palpitación del espacio
son los pasos de la estación en celo
sobre las brasas del año

Rumor de alas y de crótalos
tambores lejanos del chubasco
crepitación y jadeo de la tierra
bajo su vestidura de insectos y raíces

La sed despierta y construye
sus grandes jaulas de vidrio
donde tu desnudez es agua encadenada
agua que canta y se desencadena

Armada con las armas del verano
entras en mi cuarto entras en mi frente
y desatas el río del lenguaje
mírate en estas rápidas palabras

El día se quema poco a poco
sobre el paisaje abolido
tu sombra es un país de pájaros
que el sol disipa con un gesto

text: Octavio Paz

•

HEAR the throbbing of space
it is the steps of a season in heat
across the embers of the year

Murmur of wings and rattles
the far-off drumbeats of the storm
the crackling and panting of the earth
under its cape of roots and bugs

Thirst wakes and builds
great cages of glass
where your nakedness is water in chains
water that sings and breaks loose from its chains

Armed with the arms of summer
you come into my room come into my mind
and untie the river of language
look at yourself in these hurried words

Bit by bit the day burns out
over the erasing landscape
your shadow is a land of birds
the sun scatters with a wave

translation: Eliot Weinberger

Text used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.
Copyright © 2012 Mari Esabel Valverde. All rights reserved.

Image: "Silhouette of Trees and Sun" by Lai YuChing on Unsplash

Las armas del verano (Art Song)

Prayer of St. Francis • SATB chorus and piano • ca. 3'
artist: Emory Mastersingers
publisher: MariValverde.com MVC-111

LORD, make me an instrument
of your peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon,
Where there is doubt, faith,
Where there is despair, hope,
Where there is darkness, light,
And where there is sadness, joy.
Oh, divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born
to eternal life.

text: Francesco d'Assisi

Copyright © 2013 Mari Esabel Valverde. All rights reserved.

Image: "St. Francis in Ecstasy" (ca. 1650) by Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (Il Grechetto)

Prayer of St. Francis (SATB)

Patterns on the Snow • SSAA chorus and piano • ca. 3'30''
Artist: Baylor Bella Voce
Publisher: Walton Music

LOSE THE PAIN in the snow
Where all footsteps melt
And the magic trance
Bids you rise and follow
Forgetting all you felt
Except the dance, except the dance.

Lose the pain in the love
Where all being flows
Though the step is intricate
Still as through the dance you move
Silently the pattern grows
To include, not to reject.

Lose the pain in the living
Where the self however haunted
Dances on because it must,
All forgiving, all forgiving.
Lose again all that you wanted
Except trust, except trust.

Lose the pain in the faith
Gladly as the dance grows graver,
Love and living both let go,
Love and pain be danced to death
Let the dancer never waver
Drawing patterns on the snow.

from Two Songs, Nº 1 from Three Poems by May Sarton
in the August 1949 ed. of Poetry Magazine

Music: Copyright © December 2016 Mari Esabel Valverde. All Rights Reserved.
Text: Reprinted with permission from Russell and Volkening as agents for the author.

Image: "Snow Flake" by Marc Newberry on Unsplash

Praise, Peace, Patterns, and Poetry

Patterns on the Snow (SSAA)

Best Wishes • SATB a cappella chorus • ca. 3'
artist: Members of the 2009-2010 St. Olaf Choir
publisher: MariValverde.com MVC-061

LET YOUR LOVE be ever blessed.
Let you hold yourselves with love,
And your days be simply filled with joy.
Let *him cry on your shoulder
When *he is sad.
Let you cry in *his arms
When you are glad.
Let the words of your love be true.
Let them live through all you do.
Let us praise and share in your love,
But let us not know the greatness of your love!
For it is yours,
And only yours.
It is soft.
It is sweet.
But let it be the strongest thing that you know
So that it may always keep.

text: Mari Esabel Valverde

*The words "him," "he," and "his," may be replaced with "her," "she" and "her" or "them," "they are," and "their" as appropriate.

Copyright © 2010 Mari Esabel Valverde. All rights reserved.

Image:  "Wedding" by Wendy Winarno on Unsplash

Best Wishes (SATB)

Award-winning composer, native of North Texas, Mari Esabel Valverde, whose music has been reviewed as “heart-stopping” (BBC Music Magazine) and “of shimmering beauty” (The WholeNote), has composed art songs, chamber music, and works for chorus, orchestra, and wind ensemble. Recent projects include commissions for the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses, Los Angeles Master Chorale, and the University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club. Aspiring to create music that emboldens people to unlearn shame, her works center the voices of historically marginalized authors and address questions of gender, sexuality, social justice, and love of the natural world. Currently based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, she holds degrees from St. Olaf College, the European American Musical Alliance in Paris, France, and San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Mari Esabel Valverde

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