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I Go Among Trees
Music by Robert Paterson
https://www.robertpaterson.com/
Duration: ca. 15'
Instrumentation: SATB choir (with divisis, SSAATTBB) and marimba (5-octaves)

For More Information: https://robertpaterson.com/i-go-among-trees
Buy Sheet Music: https://billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?keyword=i%20go%20among&main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1

MOVEMENTS
I. I Go Among Trees (Wendell Berry)
II. March in New England (May Sarton)
III. The Kestrel (John Frederick Freeman)

Commissioned by the New Amsterdam Singers, Clara Longstreth, Music Director, in honor of the chorus’ 50th Anniversary and the 65th Birthday of Barbara Zucker-Pinchoff.

NEW AMSTERDAM SINGERS
Clara Longstreth, Music Director & Conductor https://www.nasingers.org/
Guest Artist: Makoto Nakura, Marimba http://makotonakura.com/

Audio Engineer: Dongsok Shin
Recorded at Broadway Presbyterian Church, New York, NY, USA, December 12, 2021

I Go Among Trees (for Choir and Marimba)

Autumn In New York

Autumn In New York (Version By Charlie Parker)

Embraceable You

Embraceable You (Version By Charlie Parker)

Summertime

Summertime (Version By Charlie Parker)

I Go Among Trees
Music by Robert Paterson
https://www.robertpaterson.com/
Duration: ca. 15'
Instrumentation: SATB choir (with divisis, SSAATTBB) and marimba (5-octaves)

For More Information: https://robertpaterson.com/i-go-among-trees
Buy Sheet Music: https://billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?keyword=i%20go%20among&main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1

MOVEMENTS
I. I Go Among Trees (Wendell Berry)
II. March in New England (May Sarton)
III. The Kestrel (John Frederick Freeman)

Commissioned by the New Amsterdam Singers, Clara Longstreth, Music Director, in honor of the chorus’ 50th Anniversary and the 65th Birthday of Barbara Zucker-Pinchoff.

NEW AMSTERDAM SINGERS
Clara Longstreth, Music Director & Conductor https://www.nasingers.org/
Guest Artist: Makoto Nakura, Marimba http://makotonakura.com/

Audio Engineer: Dongsok Shin
Recorded at Broadway Presbyterian Church, New York, NY, USA, December 12, 2021

III. The Kestrel
by John Freeman 

In a great western wind we climbed the hill 
And saw the clouds run up, ride high and sink; 
And there were shadows running at our feet 
Till it seemed the very earth could not be still, 
Nor could our hearts be still, nor could we think 
Our hearts could ever be still, our thought less fleet 
Than the dizzy clouds, less than the flying wind. 
Eastward the valley and the dark steep hill 
And other hills and valleys lost behind 
In mist and light. The hedges were not yet bare 
Though the wind picked at them as he went by. 
The woods were fire, a fire that dense or clear 
Burned steady, but could not burn up the shadows 
Rooted where the trees’ roots entangled lie, 
In darkness; or a flame burned solitary 
In the middle of the highest of brown meadows, 
Burned solitary and unconsuming where 
A red tree stooped to its black shadow and 
The kestrel’s shadow hunted the kestrel up the hill. 
We climbed, and as we stood (where yet we stand 
And of the visioned sun and shadow still drink) 
Happiness like a shadow chased our thought 
That tossed on free wings up and down the world; 
Till by that wild swift-darting shadow caught 
Our free spirits their free pinions furled. 
Then as the kestrel began once more the heavens to climb 
A new-winged spirit rose clear above the hills of time. 

This poem is in the public domain.

I Go Among Trees - III. The Kestrel (John Frederick Freeman)

I Go Among Trees
Music by Robert Paterson
https://www.robertpaterson.com/
Duration: ca. 15'
Instrumentation: SATB choir (with divisis, SSAATTBB) and marimba (5-octaves)

For More Information: https://robertpaterson.com/i-go-among-trees
Buy Sheet Music: https://billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?keyword=i%20go%20among&main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1

MOVEMENTS
I. I Go Among Trees (Wendell Berry)
II. March in New England (May Sarton)
III. The Kestrel (John Frederick Freeman)

Commissioned by the New Amsterdam Singers, Clara Longstreth, Music Director, in honor of the chorus’ 50th Anniversary and the 65th Birthday of Barbara Zucker-Pinchoff.

NEW AMSTERDAM SINGERS
Clara Longstreth, Music Director & Conductor https://www.nasingers.org/
Guest Artist: Makoto Nakura, Marimba http://makotonakura.com/

Audio Engineer: Dongsok Shin
Recorded at Broadway Presbyterian Church, New York, NY, USA, December 12, 2021

II. March in New England
by May Sarton 

Here in New England where the ice still grips 
And pussy willows have not put on fur, 
The masts are earthbound of the sleeping ships, 
And only clammers on the beaches stir. 
All seems exhausted by its own withholding, 
Its own withstanding. There is no unfolding. 
Even the new moon promises no better 
Than a thin joke about much colder weather. 

This harsh world locks itself up in the season. 
It is clearly not the time and not the place 
To ask for summer love, for more than reason, 
To hope to lift the cloud from any face. 
Look at the trees, how even they determine 
To hold their leaves back under the tough skin. 
“Keep snug” is their advice, and they endure, 
For frost is on the way again for sure. 

Yet in New England before spring I’ve seen 
The sea unfold as sumptuous as silk, 
Have watched the cold world tilt back into green, 
And watched the waves spill out like foaming milk­— 
Till the eye, starved for color and for light, 
Wept at such majesty beside such blight, 
Would rush to break trees open, and to bring 
To this locked world torrents of English spring!

March in New England by May Sarton, from Collected poems: 1930-1993. © W.W. Norton & Company, 1993. Reprinted with permission from Lippincott Massie McQuilkin.

I Go Among Trees - II. March in New England (May Sarton)

I Go Among Trees
Music by Robert Paterson
https://www.robertpaterson.com/
Duration: ca. 15'
Instrumentation: SATB choir (with divisis, SSAATTBB) and marimba (5-octaves)

For More Information: https://robertpaterson.com/i-go-among-trees
Buy Sheet Music: https://billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?keyword=i%20go%20among&main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1

MOVEMENTS
I. I Go Among Trees (Wendell Berry)
II. March in New England (May Sarton)
III. The Kestrel (John Frederick Freeman)

Commissioned by the New Amsterdam Singers, Clara Longstreth, Music Director, in honor of the chorus’ 50th Anniversary and the 65th Birthday of Barbara Zucker-Pinchoff.

NEW AMSTERDAM SINGERS
Clara Longstreth, Music Director & Conductor https://www.nasingers.org/
Guest Artist: Makoto Nakura, Marimba http://makotonakura.com/

Audio Engineer: Dongsok Shin
Recorded at Broadway Presbyterian Church, New York, NY, USA, December 12, 2021

I. I Go Among Trees
by Wendell Berry 

I go among trees and sit still. 
All my stirring becomes quiet 
around me like circles on water. 
My tasks lie in their places 
where I left them, asleep like cattle. 

Then what is afraid of me comes 
and lives a while in my sight. 
What it fears in me leaves me, 
and the fear of me leaves it. 
It sings, and I hear its song. 

Then what I am afraid of comes. 
I live for a while in its sight. 
What I fear in it leaves it, 
and the fear of it leaves me. 
It sings, and I hear its song. 

After days of labor, 
mute in my consternations, 
I hear my song at last, 
and I sing it. As we sing, 
the day turns, the trees move. 

Copyright © 1998 by Wendell Berry, from A Timbered Choir. Reprinted by permission of Counterpoint Press.

I Go Among Trees - I. I Go Among Trees (Wendell Berry)

Bird Up: The Originals

Constellation

American composer Robert Paterson is a true New Yorker—born and bred in Buffalo, he lived in Rochester and Ithaca for over ten years, in New York City for over twenty years, and now lives in Saratoga Springs, near the Adirondacks. Paterson’s colorful music embraces a wide variety of themes, everything from goddesses and online dating to mathematics and the environment. His music is filled with emotion and fierce rhythmic energy, marked by elegance, wit, and meticulous craftsmanship. Named Composer of The Year by the Classical Recording Foundation at Carnegie Hall, Paterson is the winner of the Alfred I. DuPont Award, and his opera Three Way won the Grammy® under Best Classical Producer of the Year. His music is often a Best of the Year pick on National Public Radio. His orchestral tone poem, Dark Mountains, regularly airs on NPR’s Performance Today. Three Way premiered with Nashville Opera, then BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music), and across the United States. Minnesota Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, The Oratorio Society of New York, Buffalo Philharmonic, Albany Pro Musica, Albany Symphony, Musica Sacra, Austin Symphony, Vermont Symphony, and ensembles worldwide perform his works. Paterson gives masterclasses at the Curtis Institute of Music, New York University, the Aspen Music Festival, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and more. He is the Artistic Director and house composer for Mostly Modern Projects. Robert is a lifelong vegan and advocates for animals and the environment, celebrating the natural world with ground-breaking works such as his Triple Concerto, A New Eaarth, Listen, and I Go Among Trees.

I Go Among Trees - I. I Go Among Trees (Wendell Berry)

Robert Paterson Composer