Music by Mateo Flecha el Viejo
Arr. David Walters

This modern re-imagining of the classic villancico is full of subtly unresolved harmony and infectious polyrhythms. It's accessible to choirs at many levels and fun to sing! Plus, the '3-against-2' body percussion is a unique feature of this arrangement that accentuates the lilting pulse of the original melody.

Riu Riu Chiu

Trad. German Carol
Arr. David Walters

The text of Schneeflöckchen, Weißröckchen is that of a child, longing for snowflakes, but the music is that of an adult recalling innocent childhood memories while facing mature realities. Though confronting the gap between life’s hardships and youthful dreams can be a miserable prospect, as represented by the dramatic transposition from b minor to f# minor, the resolution to D major signifies that at the end of it all, we can reconcile the person we are with the child we were. Wishing for snowflakes to cover the earth “with heavenly peace” is a metaphor for that reconciliation, and the light, expressive flute writing is another vehicle for the melancholic narrative.

Schneeflöckchen, Weißröckchen

Mezzo Soprano & SATB choir | Brass Quintet, Piano, & Percussion | 9'

Toward a Star is a stirring setting of Henrietta Cordelia Ray’s Aspiration and a humanist anthem that aptly describes how “we climb the slopes of life” with hope for a better future. In the end, it asks if we can repine, which is to say what choice have we but to strive, to climb, to sing, to hasten on? Though the text makes no guarantees of success, the music resolutely, if a little defiantly, says it is human nature to do it anyway.

Toward A Star

SATB choir | Piano | 6'

Juxtaposing soaring melodies and a lilting accompaniment with rhythmic heft forms an appropriate setting of Georgia Douglas Johnson's text wherein the writer is simultaneously flying and chained to the ground. Though we "beat our wings" again and again, we are continually fettered by what we find on earth. In tandem with the text, the music finds a passionate resolve and a defiant strength.

Though she never lived in Harlem and initially studied to be a composer, Johnson is regarded as the foremost female poet of the Harlem Renaissance, largely through her mentorship of younger writers.

When I Rise Up

This brief work was inspired by "He would not stay for me, and who can wonder" by A. E. Housman (1859-1936).

He would not stay for me, and who can wonder?
He would not stay for me to stand and gaze.
I shook his hand, and tore my heart in sunder,
And went with half my life about my ways.

HALF MY HEART

Soprano | Sarah Rees
Mezzo-Soprano | Katherine Pracht Phares
Newphonia Ensemble
Conductor | Gabriela Gómez Estévez
2023 LSU Operability Festival

Text:

Soprano:
When we two parted in silence and tears, half broken-hearted to sever for years,
Pale grew thy cheek and cold, colder thy kiss; truly that hour foretold sorrow to this.

Mezzo-Soprano:
The dew of the morning sunk chill on my brow - it felt like the warning of what I feel now.

Soprano:
Thy vows are all broken, and light is thy fame; I hear thy name spoken and share in its shame.

Mezzo-Soprano:
They name thee before me, a knell to mine ear; 

Soprano:
They know not I knew thee, who knew thee too well. 

Both: 
Thy vows all broken, broken, broken.

Mezzo-Soprano:
A shudder comes o'er me - why wert thou so dear?

Soprano:
Long, long shall I rue thee, too deeply to tell.

Mezzo-Soprano:
In secret we met - in silence I grieve, that thy heart could forget, thy spirit deceive.
If I should meet thee after long years, how should I greet thee?

Soprano:
With silence

Mezzo-Soprano:
and tears.

SEVERED

SATB choir | Percussion | 6'

Being essentially a pop song interpolated with elements of EDM, this work is less about florid melodies and voice leading, and more about engaging harmonic progressions and an infectious beat. This music captures the moment of seeing a falling star from a bridge, but also functions in the manner a distant yet beloved memory of such an event would behave - it rattles around the mind, hazy around the edges, the details less clear than the pensive emotion you felt at the time.

There are also many solo opportunities throughout!

DWaltersMusic

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