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.