RBM-016 | Gifts

Gifts
RBM – 016
SATB Chorus with Piano Accompaniment

This tuneful work was commissioned by a group of students as a memorial to honor their Master Teacher, Herbert Moyer. The poem was written by Jack Bender, one of the grateful students, and was set for chorus and piano to honor the life of the choral musician and inspirational teacher for whom it was created.

The music in this composition is songlike and romantically fashioned from long, lyric lines. It remains tonal, though chromatic, and is easy for a moderately-skilled young adult or amateur chorus to grasp.

The poem:

How did you find my gifts,
So intent on hiding?
When did you hear the song
I wished to sing?

Where did you see my star
I didn’t know was shining?
How did you discover
All these things?

O ear so sure,
O eye so penetrating,
Where did you find my gifts,
So intent on hiding?

My heart swells with joy, and
Joy that keeps ascending;
For having found my gifts, my
Song is never-ending.

A carver strips the outer bark, while
Seeing to the heart;
A cutter chips the stones so hard to
Uncover works of art.

How did your reach encounter that
Waiting to be found?
How did you come to
Show me all these things?

I sing, I sing with joy, a
Joy that keeps ascending;
For having found my gifts
My song is never-ending.

A carver and a cutter,
Both, are master teachers.
We are to look for treasure in
Friend, neighbor, stranger.

To find the gifts in others,
Our never-ending task.

( dur: 4:00″ )

All rentals arranged through ECS Publishing.

View: Gifts – Choral Score