In my mailbox:
Tune in to Classical Minnesota Public Radio (99.5 FM in the Twin Cities) Thursday, November 2, during the 3 pm hour.
Live music by VocalEssence and Cantus will be heard during the weekly regional music spotlight on Classical Minnesota Public Radio this Thursday between 3 and 4 pm. Three selections from the October 1 “American Voices” concert, recorded at Orchestra Hall, will be featured:
VocalEssence Ensemble Singers: The Day is Done, Stephen Paulus
Cantus: They Shall Hunger No More, Dominick Argento
VocalEssence Chorus and Ensemble Singers: Beneath These Alien Stars, Libby Larsen
Texts:
The Day is Done Stephen Paulus (2006)
The day is done, and the darkness
Falls from the wings of Night,
As a feather is wafted downward
From an eagle in his flight.
I see the lights of the village
Gleam through the rain and the mist,
And a feeling of sadness comes o’er me
That my soul cannot resist:
A feeling of sadness and longing,
That is not akin to pain,
And resembles sorrow only
As the mist resembles the rain.
Come, read to me some poem
Some simple and heartfelt lay,
That shall soothe this restless feeling,
And banish the thoughts of day.
Read from some humbler poet,
Whose songs gushed from his heart,
As showers from the clouds of summer,
Or tears from the eyelids start;
Then read from the treasured volume
The poem of they choice,
And lend to the rhyme of the poet
The beauty of thy voice.
And the night shall be filled with music
And the cares, that infest the day,
Shall be banished like restless feelings
That silently steal away. —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
They Shall Hunger No More Dominick Argento (1966)
from The Revelation of Saint John the Divine
They shall hunger no more,
neither thirst any more;
neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.
For the Lamb shall feed them,
the Lamb shall lead them unto living fountains of water:
and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes,
and shall lead them unto living fountains of water.
Alleluia, Amen. —Revelation 7:16-17
Beneath these Alien Stars Libby Larsen (1988)
Beneath these alien stars
In darkness I have stood alone,
More than mountains
Come between me and my home.
The desert wind has waved my hair:
Desert sands have etched my face,
And the courage of the mountains
Has bound me to this place.
And something of its peace I’ve won.
I have stood with only God,
Between me and the sun. —Vesta Pierce Crawford, from Pioneer Woman
