Premiere:    Interlochen Arts Academy Choir & Interlochen Arts Academy Band. Conductor, Matthew Schlomer, 2013.

Duration:    4:00

Difficulty:    Intermediate

Instrumentation:    SATB choir, wind ensemble. (Piano accompaniment version available)

Text adapted with permission from Anne-Marie Oomen’s poem Star-Speak.

This piece was written for the combined Interlochen Academy Choir and Interlochen Academy Band for their Holidays at Interlochen concert in December 2013. The concert was a multimedia collaboration hosted by IPR’s Kate Botello. The full radio broadcast of the concert is archived here.

Star-Speak

Then before God made God
Then before man made mind
Then before love transformed
The darkened land to milk and shine
A star opened a door to us.

The star said, “Come to the door,
Change the world, change the night,
Change a heart, make new light.”

The star said, “Come to the door,
Change the world, change the night,
Change a heart, make new light.”

Just before the inn was closed,
Just before the mule was done,
Just before kings were gone
A darkened hillside changed its form,
The sky opened a door to us.

The star said, “Come to the door,
Change the world, change the night,
Change a heart, make new light.”

Now before the loss is done,
Now before the dying ‘scape,
Now before love transforms
The darkened land to some new shape,
A Star opens a door to us.

This piece was written for the combined Interlochen Academy Choir and Interlochen Academy Band for their Holidays at Interlochen concert in December 2013. The concert was a multimedia collaboration hosted by IPR’s Kate Botello. The full radio broadcast of the concert is archived here.