2014 Program Notes, Book 6 41
Thursday, July 17 and Sunday, July 21, 2014
Little lamb, who made thee?
Does thou know who made thee?
Little lamb, I’ll tell thee;
Little lamb, I’ll tell thee:
He is called by thy name,
For He calls Himself a Lamb.
He is meek, and He is mild,
He became a little child.
I, a child, and thou a lamb,
We are called by His name.
Little lamb, God bless thee!
Little lamb, God bless thee!
TOWARD SUNSHINE, TOWARD FREEDOM:
SONGS OF SMALLER CREATURES
(2005)
Abbie Betinis (born in 1980)
Betinis wrote of
Toward Sunshine, Toward Freedom: Songs of
Smaller Creatures
, “Hans Christian Andersen once wrote (in
the voice of a butterfly): ‘Just living is not enough … One must
have sunshine, freedom and a little flower.’
Toward Sunshine,
Toward Freedom: Songs of Smaller Creatures
comprises three
tone-poems for mixed
a cappella
chorus, each a character
study on a small creature from the natural world.
“The first,
The Bees’ Song
, takes its silly text from British poet Walter de la Mare,
who included no less than 33 ‘Z’s’ in his poem of the same name. This musical setting
highlights those ‘Z’ sounds, as each part buzzes around looking for a nice cadence
to land on. The second movement, which takes its title and text fromWalt Whitman’s
A Noiseless Patient Spider
, compares the questing soul to that of a spider able to
know her position in the world by launching and trusting her web. Set for eight-
part chorus, the piece begins with each of the voice parts representing a leg of
the solitary spider as she walks slowly to the edge of the promontory. Suddenly
she ‘launches forth filament’ and the voices begin the process of weaving a web of
their own.
Envoi
uses Charles Swinburne’s simple text to illustrate the flocking and
migrating of a mass of butterflies. The nonsense syllables seek to propel the piece
while providing a subtle flapping of tiny wings, as if the singers are there in the thick
of the migration.”
The Grant Park Chorus recorded this piece for its 2012 release of a cappella works
entitled
Songs of Smaller Creatures and other American Choral Works
.
I. The Bees’ Song
Text: Walter de la Mare (1873-1953)
Thousandz of thornz there be
On the Rozez where gozez
The Zebra of Zee:
Sleek, striped, and hairy,
The steed of the Fairy
Princess of Zee.
Heavy with blossomz be
The Rozez that growzez
In the thickets of Zee.
Where grazez the Zebra,
Marked Abracadeeebra,
Of the Princess of Zee.
