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"The Transaction" from the opera Ruth by Ronald Beckett.

The Transaction

"The Meeting" from the opera Ruth by Ronald Beckett.

The Meeting

"The Departure" from the opera Ruth by Ronald Beckett.

The Departure

"Closing Hymn" from the opera Ruth by Ronald Beckett.

Closing Hymn

"Opening Hymn" from the opera Ruth by Ronald Beckett.

Opening Hymn

Ruth is a moving and dramatic musical story of faith, loyalty, family, and women’s strength. The work was written
in 1996 by Arcady’s director, Ronald Beckett, and was adapted from the libretto by Roger Bayley. Ruth has been performed internationally, most recently by Belmont University School of Music in Nashville in March 2022 and Arcady in Ontario Canada in May 2022. The 2007 recording of Ruth has gained a wide audience internationally, especially in Europe and Israel.

Ruth - A Musical Drama

The Catalogue Of Succession

The Family

THE CREATURES' CALL
   performed by Anna Anna Wojcik

I. Animals text by Walt Whitman
I think I could turn and live with the animals, they are so
placid and self-contain’d,
I stand and look at them long and long.
They do not sweat and whine about their condition,
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,
Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania
of owning things,
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived
thousands of years ago,
Not one is responsible nor industrious over the whole earth.

II. The Lamb text by William Blake
Little Lamb who made thee
 Dost thou know who made thee
Gave thee life & bid thee feed.
By the stream & o’er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing wooly bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice!
Little Lamb who made thee
 Dost thou know who made thee
 Little Lamb I’ll tell thee,
 Little Lamb I’ll tell thee!
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb:
He is meek & he is mild,
He became a little child:
I a child & thou a lamb,
We are called by his name.
 Little Lamb God bless thee.
 Little Lamb God bless thee.

III. The Black-Faced Honey text by Susan Glickman
Creeper
Rarest bird in the world, you remind me
of chickadees who make the winter merry;
black-capped, finch-billed, a fistful of airy
fluff. But unlike them you are solitary,
hidden on remote Haleakala
in scarlet-flowering trees a hundred feet high
whose honey you sip, scanning the blue sky
for predators. You can’t see malaria,
can’t sense the lack of snails, your favourite diet;
still, some instinct chased you here, out of range
of pigs and cats. They say that you are strange.
They say you are “unusually quiet.”
Well, lonely as you are, why would you sing?
Your pretty thing, pretty thing, pretty thing.

IV. The monkey speaks his mind text by Anonymous
Three monkeys sat in a coconut tree
Discussing things as they’re said to be.
Said one to the others: “Now listen you two,
There’s a certain rumour that can’t be true
That man descended from our noble race –
Why, the very idea is a disgrace!
“No monkey ever deserted his wife,
Starved her babies and ruined her life;
And you’ve never known a mother monk
Leave her babies with others to bunk,
Or pass them on from one to another
‘Til they scarcely know who is their mother.
“And another thing you’ll never see –
A monk build a fence round a coconut tree,
Forbidding all other monks to taste
And letting the coconuts go to waste.
Why! if I built a fence round a coconut tree
Starvation would force you to steal from me.
“Here’s another thing a monk won’t do:
Go out at night and get in a stew,
Or use a gun or club or knife
To take some other monkey’s life.
Yes, man descended, the ornery cuss,
But brother he didn’t descend from us!”

V. A bird came down the walk text by Emily Dickinson
A Bird, came down the Walk -
He did not know I saw -
He bit an Angle Worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw,
And then, he drank a Dew
From a convenient Grass -
And then hopped sidewise to the Wall
To let a Beetle pass -
He glanced with rapid eyes,
That hurried all abroad -
They looked like frightened Beads, I thought,
He stirred his Velvet Head. -
Like one in danger, Cautious,
I offered him a Crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers,
And rowed him softer Home -
Than Oars divide the Ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or Butterflies, off Banks of Noon,
Leap, plashless as they swim.

The Creatures' Call

Natures Cry

Trio For Flute, Clarinet, And Horn 1. Andante

Mixolydian Quartet, Movement 1

Trio For Flute, Clarinet, And Horn 3. Allegro - Andante Maestoso

Trio For Flute, Clarinet, And Horn 2. Allegretto

Dance Suite

Ding, Dong! Merrily On High

Wassail Song

O My Dear Heart

Woodwind Quintet 3. Scherzo: A Canon In Palindrome

The Wedding at Cana

Woodwind Quintet 1. Allegretto

Past Three A Clock

Silent Night

Live recording from Arcady's "Voices of Summer" Concert, June 10 2016

I Keep Six Honest: Serving Men

The Little Vagabond

Live recording from Arcady's "Voices of Summer" Concert, June 10 2016.  Vanessa Oude-Reimerink, soprano, Jennifer Moersch, cello, Laura Pin, piano.

Animals

The Sun Has Set

The Evening Sun

Making A Man

The Seasons: Four Poems by Emily Dickinson, Movement 1

Marion Eckhard-Gramatte CD

Winter: There's a certain slant of light

The Seasons: Four Poems by Emily Dickinson, Movement 4

Autumn: BESIDES the autumn poets sing

The Seasons: Four Poems by Emily Dickinson, Movement 2

Spring: A light exists in spring

Unknown album (2016-08-17 21:51:08)

These are Thy Glorious Works

Jabberwocky is a setting of the poem by Lewis Carroll. It was included in Carroll's 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.  This work was commissioned by Arcady baritone Michael York. The original solo voice version has been expanded for women's chorus for Voices of Autumn.

Jabberwocky

Holy Thursday

“Elegies for the 21st Century” is a series of sonnets by poet Susan Glickman about animals that have gone extinct in the 21st century. The animals are Monteverde Toad (Costa Rica), Black-Faced Honeycreeper (Hawaii), River Otter (Japan), Baiji Dolphin (China), and Pyrenean Ibex (France and Spain).

Elegies For The 21st Century - The Black Faced Honey Creeper

Give Thanks Unto the Lordwas written by Ronald Beckett in 2010 with text from Psalm 118. This is taken from a performance by Arcady at Voices of Summer in Brantford, June 2018.

Give Thanks Unto the Lord

Recorded at Christ Church in Mississauga on March 16, 2019.  It was written in 2010 and dedicated to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Nature's Cry

The Round from Section G (The Healing Ministry) of the opera I Am…

The Healing Ministry (excerpt)

Composed by Ronald Beckett. Text by Alfred Grant Walton. Performed by Arcady at "Voices of Summer" in Brantford, Ontario on June 8, 2019. Recording by Cithera.

The World We Make

Composed by Ronald Beckett. Text by Nick Peros. Performed by Arcady at "Voices of Summer" in Brantford, Ontario on June 8, 2019. Recording by Cithera.

Time Is Sleeping

Composed by Ronald Beckett. Text by Rudyard Kipling. Performed by Arcady (Angela Gibbon, soloist) at "Voices of Summer" in Brantford, Ontario on June 8, 2019. Recording by Cithera.

Composed by Ronald Beckett. Text by Patrick Chalmers. Performed by Arcady (Angela Gibbon, soloist) at "Voices of Summer" in Brantford, Ontario on June 8, 2019. Recording by Cithera.

When Mary Goes A Walking

Sonata for Viola and Piano composed by Ronald Beckett:
1. Introduction, 2. Scherzo, 3. Chaconne, 4. Cartwheel
Performed by Ezra Duo (Jacob Clewell, viola; Sasha Bult-Ito, piano) at Arcady's "Voices of Summer" in Brantford, Ontario on June 8, 2019. Recording by Cithera.

Sonata for Viola and Piano

From "Songs of Brotherhood" composed by Ronald Beckett. Text by Rosa Marinoni. Performed by Arcady (Anna Boyes, soloist) at "Voices of Summer" in Brantford, Ontario on June 8, 2019. Recording by Cithera.

3. Who Are My People

Composed by Ronald Beckett. Text by Lydia Sharpe. Performed by Arcady (Savanna Sokolnicki, soloist) at "Voices of Summer" in Brantford, Ontario on June 8, 2019. Recording by Cithera.

The Wild Waters

Composed by Ronald Beckett. Text by John Keats. Performed by Arcady (Savanna Sokolnicki, soloist) at "Voices of Summer" in Brantford, Ontario on June 8, 2019. Recording by Cithera.

On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer

Composed by Ronald Beckett. Performed October 26, 2019 at St. Andrew's United Church, Brantford by Arcady's Chorus and Orchestra as part of "Arcady's 20th Anniversary Celebration Concert".

Shout For Joy

Welcome Yule!

Adeste Fideles

Mixolydian Suite for piano, four hands from A Beckett Miscellany CD: Diana Dumlavwalla, Tracy Walker, pianists.

Ronald Beckett

Pinned to spotlight

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