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Come and Go to that Land

Come and go to that land where I'm bound

Come and go to that land where I'm bound

Through many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come
'Twas grace that brought me safe thus far, and I know it will lead me home

Come and go with me to my Father's house,
There is joy, joy, joy!


In recent years, the Waddles arrangement of Come and Go to that Land has quickly become a highly recognized and sought-after work among the tenor-bass choir repertoire. Combining two traditional spirituals, "Come and go with me" and "Come and go with me to my Father's House," Brandon Waddles has created an arrangement that attends the sonic worlds of African-American
work song and Southern male gospel quartet. Waddles summons the a cappella style of the spiritual, the extended harmonies of jazz and the motivic and rhythmic drive of gospel in this arrangement to make the pairing of these two selections a joyous community expression. Come and Go to that Land envelopes the audiences in its spirited and brave G-major sections that modulates to a most "churchy" and repetitive A-flat vamp. The Waddles arrangement perfectly engages the opening and or closing of a concert set for tenor-bass choirs.

Seven Last Words of the Unarmed

In November of 2014, a Staten Island grand jury chose not to indict the officer who murdered Eric Garner. To me, the message was clear: if I were to be killed in some interaction with authority figures, my loved ones should not expect justice. There could be a video recording of my futile attempts to describe my distress — “I can’t breathe”—with the arm of the law around my neck and the life fading from my eyes, and still, my death wouldn’t matter. My death wouldn’t matter enough to warrant a formal charge of even manslaughter or negligent homicide. This was not an isolated incident—this was a trend. The color of my skin is a capital offense. “Seven Last Words of the Unarmed” wasn’t written to be heard. It was essentially a sonic diary entry expressing my fear, anger, and grief in the wake of this tragedy. I was serving as a choral conductor at a small college in South Georgia, but I occasionally composed pieces and hid them away. Finishing this work in early January 2015 was a much-needed catharsis; I felt exorcised by the emotions that had drained my spirit. However, Freddie Gray’s death the following April impelled me to try to bring “Seven Last Words of the Unarmed” to life. A Facebook post asking musician friends to sightread the work, a phone call by a friend to Dr. Eugene Rogers of the University of Michigan, a commission from Andre Dowell to fully orchestrate the work for the 20th anniversary of the Sphinx Organization, and the piece is alive several years later and I am very grateful. Liturgical settings of the “Seven Last Words of Christ” are not trying to demonize the Roman soldiers that orchestrated the crucifixion, but they are designed to stir within the listener an empathy towards the suffering of Jesus. Inspired by that template, this piece is a meditation on the lives of seven black men and an effort to focus on their humanity, which is often eradicated in the media in an attempt to justify their deaths.Listening to “Seven Last Words of the Unarmed” can be uncomfortable. As you listen, I ask that you try to remain open. It can be easy to let a spirit of defensiveness pollute the experience of the piece. I ask that you revisit the last moments of these men with fresh hearts:

• Kenneth Chamberlain, Sr: the retired Marine who accidentally pressed his Life Alert necklace which recorded the police calling him a n***er before he was killed (Officer, why do you have your guns out?)

• Trayvon Martin: the teenage boy with his bag of Skittles being chased in his own neighborhood (“What are you following me for?).

• Amadou Diallo: the young immigrant who called his mother in Guinea after he had saved up enough money to pursue a degree in computer science (“Mom, I’m going to college.”).



• Michael Brown, Jr: the recent high school graduate and amateur musician whose body lay baking in the street for four hours before being taken to the coroner (“I don’t have a gun. Stop shooting!”).

• Oscar Grant III: the young father (of a 4-year-old girl) who was shot in the back while handcuffed in a prone position at Fruitvale Station (“You shot me! You shot me.”).

• John Crawford III: another young father who was purchasing a BB gun in a Walmart in the open carry state of Ohio (“It’s not real.”).

• Eric Garner: the 43-year-old grandfather who was choked to death on camera on the streets of New York City (“I can’t breathe.”).

When the music is over, let us continue to listen. Let us listen to each other with love and hope for a more just future. Thank you.

With love,

Joel Thompson

Hear My Prayer, O Lord

Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my crying come unto Thee (Psalm 102)

The themes of life and its passing resonate deeply within the Purcell, the Hogan, and the Quartel. Purcell’s Hear My Prayer, originally a piece for mixed voice ensemble, shows the composer looking back in musical traditions for inspiration. He exploits a shifting modality, evident from the first phrases, to color the plangent phrase “and let my crying come unto thee.” The text and music speak of the need for relief from the woes of existence. It’s interesting to think of the titular phrase “Hear my prayer,” as analogous to Collier’s lyric “and when I call your name,” as they share a supplicative quality.

Ride on, King Jesus


Ride on, Jessus. Ride on, the conquering King / O, Ride on, King Jesus / No man, can-a hinder  thee

I was but young when I begun, but now my race is almost done / King Jesus rides a nilk white horse, the rib’ber of Jordan he did cross

Jesus is the King; he’s the Lord / Jesus is the first and he’s the last / Ride on, King Jesus / No man can-a hinder thee

Moses Hogan’s Ride on, King Jesus is an arrangement of a popular spiritual that incorporates gospel elements. It unapologetically leans on a charismaticdelivery that demands a big sound. The text centers on the journey toward an afterlife.

Songbird

I am a Songbird; I will sing anything. Give me a tune, I will spin you gold.
Closer you come to the Songbird weaving, stronger the thread of the music’s hold.

Feel in the breeze a breath, a soaring song to you, and hear me say:
“I am a Songbird; I will sing anything. Follow the breeze and come my way.”

One little bird on a branch sits fanning amber wings to the passersby.
Two little birds in flight are threading webs of gold in an endless sky.
Three little birds with brushes painting moonlit sighs in the height of day.
Four little birds with voices gleaming breathe to the wind singing ‘come my way!’

Sing little bird so sweetly.
Drown my fears completely.


Songbird is less direct in its approach to the subject, but with the line “Sing little bird so sweetly, drown my fears completely,” asks us to think on the contrasting lightness and gravity of life’s experiences. They are to be celebrated, and in the celebration, we create meaning.

Fire

Fire, heat, light, strength, fuel, drive, burning, melting, evaporating, and transforming fire

Now over a decade old, having been premiered by the Laurier singers in 2014, Fire is the third movement from Katerina Gimon’s “Elements,” a set of choral works that abstractly depict the four classical elements and explore the wide range and capabilities of the human voice - from overtone singing to vocal percussion, to colorful vocal timbres. Elements features no 'text' (at least not in the traditional sense), rather a series of syllables generated through improvisation meant to evoke the sonic uniqueness of each element.

Wie lielich sing Deine Wohnungen from Ein Deutsches Requiem

Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen, Herr Zebaoth!
Meine Seele verlanget und sehnet sich nach den Vorhöfen des Herrn; Mein Leib und Seele freuen sich
In dem lebendigen Gott 

Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen, Herr Zebaoth!
Wohl denen, die in deinem Hause wohnen Die loben dich immerdar
Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen!

How lovely is Your dwelling place, O Lord of Hosts
My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord
My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God


How lovely is Your dwelling place, O Lord of Hosts
Blessed are they that dwell in your house
They praise your name forever.

Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem) was fully completed in 1868, but he had begun work on it as far back as 1854, likely inspired by the suicide attempt that year, and death shortly after, of his musical hero and friend, Robert Schumann. The 1868 premiere of six movements of his Requiem yielded a great deal of career success for Brahms and solidified his repute as one of Europe’s prominent composers. The “German” in its title refers to it being in German (not Latin). And rather than creating a musical prayer to help the departed into heaven as Requiems typically do, Brahms focuses on comforting those left behind. The gentle “Wie lieblich sind Deine Wohnungen” (How lovely are Thy dwellings) is the central description and promise of eternal life. It is a simple ABA song form for the chorus, whose middle section is a passionate outburst of longing for God, "Mein Leib und Seele freuet sich" (My body and soul cry out). The movement concludes with another fugue of praise, "Die Loben dich immerdar" (They praise thy name forever).

In effect it is this: that I love you

“Know that since mid-September, when you still regarded me as a tiresome little knocker on your door, I held you as Keats + Christ + Elijah + my Colonel + my father-confessor + Amenophis IV in profile.

What's that mathematically?

In effect it is this: that I love you, dispassionately, so much, so very much, dear Fellow, that the blasting little smile you wear on reading this can't hurt me in the least.

If you consider what the above Names have severally done for me, you will know what you are doing. And you have fixed my Life – however short. You did not light me: I was always a mad comet; but you have fixed me. I spun round you a satellite for a month, but I shall swing out soon, a dark star in the orbit where you will blaze. It is some consolation to know that Jupiter himself sometimes swims out of Ken!”


Ethan Soledad’s In effect it is this: that I love you is the winning composition of the 2025 Raymond W. Brock Prize for Student Composition. This piece is inspired by a love letter written by renowned WWI poet, Wilfred Owen, to his colonel, mentor, and fellow poet, Siegfried Sassoon. Both literary legends were known for their raw depictions of the war in their poetry. Both were also closeted queer men in a time when homosexuality was criminalized. Even so, the incredible bond the two formed during their time together is so evident in the unrelenting love and admiration that Owen exemplifies in this letter. Sadly,their relationship came to an end when Owen was killed in battle a week before the end of the war. Siegfried was left with severe survivor’s guilt and was never truly able to move on. This piece seeks to portray the unrelenting, tumultuous love between the two but also the grief and painful guilt experienced after a loved one’s death.

World, O World

World, O World, you’ve been my home

Now it’s time for me to go

Give me the wings to fly

Sun did rise and sun did fall

You’ve been with me through it all

Always keeping by my side

Love, O Love, you’ve been a friend

Now the road must reach an end

Come, it’s time to go

Time is swift to come to pass

Nothing stays and nothing lasts

Always moving on and on

And when you call my name, I think I love again

I lay my world upon your hands again

And when you hold my pain, I feel my fire again

You are my soul. Oh, take me home

Until we meet again, goodbye.

World, O World is the final track on Jacob Collier’s 2024 album, “Djesse Vol. 4.” The track features the voices of the Oakwood University Aeolians. The first verse in presented in hymn-like fashion – serene and endearing as the warm E-flat major sound world conveys one daily retirement from engaging the world-at large. The second verse invites the listener into a more expansive treatment of the first verses harmony as the voices convey their gratitude for love’s presence along life’s journey. A rapturous bridge breaks forth with divisi present in nearly all voices, giving way to a tender benediction that splits into an antiphonal ending that gloriously captures one’s transition from one day (or life) into the next.

Julian Bingham
Caleb Cackowski
Taryn Campbell
Jack Cecere
Cian Connolly
Lorelei Cramer
Lucas Fernandez
Will Geiger

Mac Hayes
Daquan Jarrett
Emmanuel Jeffreys
Morgan Linn
Ilan Medwed
Alexander Miller
Alex Miller
Liam Mylan

Luke Ovsag
Kaiden Reitz
Joel Rivera
Elijah Shin
Caden Sitts
Will Vetter
Alan Zimmerman

Laura Bradbury
Ashley Brokaw
Katie Buffaline
Sammi Bullock
Bean Cesari
Bella Chaine
Scarlett Coons
Chloe Cramer
Isa Cruz
Kerry Cullen
Molly Davey
Jamie Decker
Jillian Doyle
Heidi Engelbert
Raegan Fritts

Zoe Galgoczy
Cherylanne Garrett
Cordelia Gilbert
Lindsay Green
Katie Greenwood
Acorn Hatton
Elizabeth Hercek
Ella Hetner
Scarlett Hickman
Eden Jordan
Janelle Jusino
Leah Kilkenny
Emma Kirk
Ana Kirsch
Maura Lander

Brianna Lee
Katie Lehman
Lily Lemery-Allen
AJ Lix
Trinity Madison
Alexa Markowitz
Nora Michaud
Gwen O'Bannon
G Owusu
Ella Padilla
Acadia Paradee
Gialina Ploutz
Ellie P Pokabla
Alanna Ramos
Lauren Ravas

Elena Rodenborn
Kelly Rogers
Victoria Schecter
Savannah Schneider
Rachel Somers
Kari Sparks
Tahlia Stefanik
Olivia Stockage
Sammie Tesoriero
Isabella Travers
Mireida Villaronga
Scarlett Wilder
Genesis Williams
Maia Wong
Lee Yotko

Ellie Babbitt
Sofia Beaulieu
Julian Bingham
Brendan Blazier
Kaitlyn Campbell
Hope Carey
Cody Chelune
Grace Commisso 
Daren De Leon
Jack Delman
Henry Denton
Molly Dubner
Amara Evans
Jasmine Foster
Abinaya Ganesh

Trevor Griffiths
Isabella Grimaldi
Lusi Halaifonua
Julia Huff
Anastasia Inglima
Alexandra Ives
Sabina Jungkeit
Michael Kaufmann
Jonathan Kuster
Ally Lemon
Allison Lewis
Morgan Linn
Lucy Montgomery
Paul Narkewich

Amelia Ostamendy
Jack Patterson
Bria Petrella
Grace Rankel
Hayley Rayfield
Jayar Rhoades
Jayna Simeon
Sarah Smith
Rachel Somers
Nikki Sutera
Emma Thomas
Grace Tomasula
Faith Tomasula
Owen Umiker
Aidan Zajkowski