To mix things up a bit, I covered one of my favorite Tom Waits songs, "Take It With Me." Enjoy!

Take It With Me

"Here Is Love" by Emily Feld
Text by William Rees (public domain)

Peruse and purchase the score at https://musicspoke.com/downloads/here-is-love/

Here Is Love

An upbeat contemporary hymn written for the Liturgy of the Hours, a podcast from Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN. Words and music by Emily Feld, 2021.

Easter Hymn

Premiered by the VocalEssence Ensemble Singers at the MN-ACDA conference in November, 2015. Philip Brunelle, conductor.

Purchase the score at https://musicspoke.com/downloads/let-children-walk-with-nature/

Text:

Let children walk with nature,
let them see the beautiful blendings and communions
of death and life, their...joyous unity,
as taught in woods and meadows,
trees and mountains...
and streams of our blessed star...
and they will learn that death is stingless...
and as beautiful as life...
All is divine.

-John Muir, from "Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf" (1916)

This text is in the public domain.

Let Children Walk With Nature

Performed by Tactus
Cross View Lutheran Church, Edina, MN
February 6, 2016

Purchase the score at https://musicspoke.com/downloads/ubi-caritas-2/

Ubi Caritas

"Love Came Down" (text by Christina Rossetti) for SATB and piano.
Commissioned and conducted by Sam Fouts, music director of Easter Lutheran Church, for the Easter Singers (2016).

Love Came Down

Commissioned by VocalEssence ReMix, which is funded by the Jerome Foundation. Premiered on February 19th, 2017, Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis. Sung by the VocalEssence Chorus, conducted by G. Phillip Shoultz, III.

Text:
Sometimes the mist overhangs my path,
And blackening clouds about me cling;
But, oh, I have a magic way 
To turn the gloom to cheerful day-- 
     I softly sing.

And if the way grows darker still,
Shadowed by sorrow's somber wing,
With glad defiance in my throat,
I pierce the darkness with a note,
     And sing, and sing.

I brood not over the darkened past,
Nor dread whatever time may bring;
No nights are dark, no days are long,
While in my heart there swells a song,
    And I can sing.

--James Weldon Johnson

VocalEssence WITNESS Underground Railroad

The Gift to Sing

Demo recording provided by the First Readings Project in St. Paul, MN.
J. David Moore, conductor

Text:
This is no time for a child to be born
With the earth betrayed by war and hate
And a comet slashing the sky to warn
That time runs out and the sun burns late.

That was no time for a child to be born
In a land in the crushing grip of Rome
Honor and truth were trampled by scorn
Yet here did the Saviour make his home.

When is the time for love to be born?
The inn is full on planet earth
And by a comet, the sky is torn
Yet love still takes the risk of birth.

"The Risk of Birth, Christmas, 1973". From The Ordering of Love: New and Collected Poems by Madeleine L'Engle. All rights reserved.

The Risk of Birth, Christmas, 1973

From “Songs of the Season: Carols by Minnesota Composers” (Dec 2018). Carrie Henneman Shaw, soprano; Laura Betinis Healy, alto; Nicholas Chalmers, tenor; Timothy C Takach, bass. Curated by Abbie Betinis for The Schubert Club, Saint Paul, MN.

Commissioned by Good Samaritan United Methodist Church, G. Phillip Shoultz, conductor, 2017.

More info: schubert.org/event/free-courtro…s-of-mn-composers/
Purchase the score at musicspoke.com/downloads/a-stranger-and-a-king/

TEXT:
Oh, let the gate swing open
However poor the yard,
Lest weary People visit you
And find their Passage barred.
Unlatch the door at midnight
And let your lantern's glow
Shine out to guide the traveler's feet
To you across the snow.
Unlock the door this evening
And let your gate swing wide,
Let all who ask for shelter
Come speedily inside.
What if your yard be narrow?
What if your house be small?
There is a Guest coming
Who will glorify it all.
Unbar your heart this evening
And keep no stranger out,
Take from your soul's great portal
The barrier of doubt.
To humble folk and weary
Give hearty welcoming,
Your breast shall be tomorrow
The cradle of a King.
-Alfred Joyce Kilmer, "Gates and Doors" (1918)

A Stranger And A King

Commissioned by the choirs of Eagan High School
Jim Cox, conductor
Steve Albaugh, piano
Premiered on May 28th, 2019 in Eagan, MN

Read "When Giving Is All We Have," by Alberto Ríos:
https://poets.org/poem/when-giving-all-we-have

Text used with permission from the author.

Emily Feld

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