RESOLUTION
ITHACA COLLEGE CHOIRS
Dr. Khyle Wooten, conductor
Earth, Mother Hear our cries
The river that flows, flows in our blood.
We pulsate with forces of nature.
The tide that moves, moves with our breath
We rise and swell as the ocean.
The water that surges, surges through our song,
And sustains us in our fight.
We flow and we rise.
We surge and we fight.
Mother, Earth! Water is life!
Earth, Mother! Hear our cries!
The fire that burns like our rage.
We pulsate with forces of nature.
The inferno that roars, roars from our throats.
We rise and swell with shouts of protest.
Our torch that blazes, catches like wildfire
We surge in our collective power.
We rage and we roar.
We protest and we rise.
Mother Earth! Hear our cries!
The first movement, “Inundation,” strives to express the threat of catastrophic flooding and the urgency to push for climate action. Sung in long, legato phrases that begin isolated and then converge in a unified message, “Inundation” foreshadows the chaos of excessive rains and overflowing tides. The cajón sustains the pulse in a rhythm common with the traditional Peruvian marinera dance. Additional textures introduced by shakers—the chajchas and the cabasa—conjure sounds of storms and rushing water. The singers’ final outcry, uttered by activists from the United States and South America alike, “Water is life,” emphasizes the reality that the survival of humanity is inextricably tied to the global climate crisis.
Performed in succession, “Wildfire” instantly contrasts “Inundation” with short, repetitive phrases sung in heavy tones. While the emergence of a flood is gradual and confounding, the urgency of a wildfire is readily palpable and violent. The Argentine bombo legüero provides a rhythmic bass, referencing the carnavalito dance, as the frictions of the güiro and the whips of clapping blocks resemble dry snaps of crackling wood. Following a high charged moment sung a cappella, this dynamic work culminates with an accelerando into a shout in unison: “Mother Earth! Hear our cries!” Perhaps abrupt, its conclusion reflects how suddenly wildfires can impact humanity for multiple generations. (Mari Esabel Valverde)
I would live in your love as the sea-grasses live by the sea,
Borne up by each wave it passes, drawn down by each wave that recedes;
I would empty my soul of the dreams that have gathered in me
I would beat with your heart as it beats, I would follow your soul where it leads.
Dr. Christopher H. Harris, native of Fort Worth, Texas, is a music educator, conductor, performer, and choral composer. In August 2017 he joined the faculty at Arkansas Tech University as Director of Choral Studies and Assistant Professor of Music. He received his PhD in Choral Music Education from Florida State University in Tallahassee, FL, his Master’s in Choral Conducting from Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY, and his Bachelor’s in Music Education from Texas Southern University in Houston, TX. Awash with warm and inviting harmonic vocal colors, Harris sets the beloved Teasdale text in a way that highlights the textual beauty of closeness, desire, and loving unity.
Until I reach my home! Until I reach my home!
I never expect my journey over ‘til I reach my home!
I went up on the mountain. I didn’t go there to stay.
But then my soul got happy. Then I stayed all day.
I would not be a sinner; I’ll tell you the reason why.
I’m afraid my Lord might call my name, and I wouldn’t be ready to die.
I got a crown up in-a that kingdom; ain-a that good news.
I’m gonna lay down this world. Gonna shoulder up-a my cross.
Gonna take it home to my Jesus; ain-a that good news.
In this arrangement, Dr. Brandon Boyd expands harmonic language of two African-American spirituals, Until I Reach My Home and Ain’ a That Good News. He uses gospel and jazz to depict shared longing and peace that heaven offered to those enslaved. Brandon Boyd’s writing infuses the piece with movement and energy. Each phrase feels like a step forward, lifted by community. It’s the kind of music that reminds us why we sing: to encourage one another and to keep moving toward something better.
Les papillons couleur de neige
Volent par essaims sur la mer;
Beaux papillons blancs, quand pourrai-je
Prendre le bleu chemin de l’air?
Savez-vous, ô belle des belles,
Ma bayadère aux yeux de jais,
S’ils me pouvaient prêter leurs ailes,
Dites, savez-vous où j’irais?
Sans prendre un seul baiser aux roses
À travers vallons et forêts,
J’irais à vos lèvres mi-closes,
Fleur de mon âme, et j’y mourrais.
Théophile Gautier
Snow-coloured butterflies
swarm over the sea;
beautiful white butterflies, when might I
take to the azure path of the air?
Do you know, O beauty of beauties,
my jet-eyed bayadère—
were they to lend me their wings,
do you know where I would go?
Without kissing a single rose,
across valleys and forests
I’d fly to your half-closed lips,
flower of my soul, and there would die.
English translation Richard Stokes
The Chausson art song, Les Papillons, is arranged for treble voices by the composer Mari Isabel Valverde. In bringing art song to the choral oeuvre, she asks for a great deal of individual expression and storytelling from the singers. The text by Théophile Gauthier uses 19th century tropes of love above all in the natural world.
O bone Jesu, miserere nobis,
quia tu creasti nos, tu redemisti nos
sanguine tuo praetiosissimo.
O good Jesus, have mercy on us,
Because you created us, you have redeemed us
With your most precious blood.
Adoramus Te, Christe,
et benedicimus tibi,
quia per sanctam crucem tuam
redemisti mundum.
Qui passus es pro nobis,
Domine, Domine, miserere nobis
Regina caeli, laetare, alleluia;
Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia,
Resurrexit, sicut dixit, alleluia:
Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia.
We adore Thee, O Christ,
and we bless Thee,
who by Thy Holy Cross
hast redeemed the world.
Thou, who hast suffered death for us,
O Lord, O Lord, have mercy on us.
Queen of heaven, rejoice, alleluia.
The Son you merited to bear, alleluia,
Has risen as he said, alleluia.
Pray to God for us, alleluia.
Brahms’ Drei Geistliches Chöre (Three Sacred Choruses) is an undersung masterpiece - a rarity in Brahms’ output. Three brief movements highlight the composer’s highly contrapuntal style, evidencing his reverence of Renaissance masters.
Though my soul may set in darkness,
it will rise in perfect light;
I have loved the stars too fondly
to be fearful of the night.
Sarah Williams
The spring sun shows me your shadow,
The spring wind bears me your breath,
You are mine for a passing moment,
But I am yours to the death.
Rosamund Marriot Watson
Our highlight is the Ithaca premiere of Khyle Wooten’s new composition, Diptych Resolution. Dr. Wooten was generous to set two short texts selected by the singers in the ensemble. The fearless ecstasy of the first movement, I Have Loved the Stars, and the intense intimacy of the second, Chimera, are colored by the rich piano writing.
As they draw to a close, of what underlies the precedent songs — of my aims in them,
Of the seed I have sought to plant in them,
Of joy, sweet joy, through many a year, in them,
(For them, for them have I lived, in them my work is done,)
Of many an aspiration fond, of many a dream and plan;
Through Space and Time fused in a chant, and the flowing eternal identity,
To Nature encompassing these, encompassing God — to the joyous, electric all
To the sense of Death, and accepting exulting in Death in its turn the same as life,
The entrance of man to sing;
To compact you, ye parted, diverse lives,
To put rapport the mountains and rocks and streams,
And the winds of the north, and the forests of oak and pine,
With you O soul.
Walt Whitman
“Commissioned and performed by “Beyond Ourselves” and the Lancaster Mennonite High School Campus Chorale (text by Walt Whitman, 1871). This original, commissioned composition was written for Bb clarinet, alto saxophone, viola, piano and SATB chorus. Whitman’s “As They Draw to a Close” (referring to the end of his poems) is an ambitious existential statement, his manifesto and justification for writing poetry. In musicalizing this poem, I wanted to capture Whitman’s urgency and grandeur. As Whitman seeks to marry his soul with Nature through his poetry, I sought to marry the instruments and chorus in a unified musical partnership.” (Pax Ressler)
Even after all this time, the sun never says to the earth,
“You owe me”
Look what happens with a love like that
It lights the whole sky
“Even After All This Time… takes its text from a beautiful quote by 14th century Persian poet, Hafiz, in a translation by Daniel Ladinsky. Ladinsky’s texts are not direct translations — rather, they are interpretations for a modern, English-speaking readership. And yet, the original Persian text is so beautiful. For this reason, I worked with a Persian language scholar to infuse the setting of this text with some of the original language. This work was written for the wedding of choral conductor Lindsay Pope. Lindsay was the commissioner of Tuttarana, as well as the author of an award-winning dissertation on my choral work. She has truly shaped my choral writing in a unique way. Setting this text was both a celebration of her marriage, as well as a way to honor the deep and generative collaboration we have built over the years.” (Reena Esmail)
A free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wing
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.
But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.
But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird sings of freedom.
The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.
The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
of things unknown but longed for still
and his tune is heard on the distant hill
for the caged bird sings of freedom.
American composer Joel Thompson is enjoying growing renown as a composer of choral music as he approaches his 35th birthday. Thompson’s breakout piece, The Seven Last Words of the Unarmed, has enjoyed widespread success, and won an Emmy award for a 2017 documentary about the piece. Since then, he was appointed Houston Grand Opera’s first-ever full-time Composer in Residence after composing his first opera, The Snowy Day, for that company. He has also received commissions from LA Opera, LA Master Chorale, and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He sings bass in Exigence, a professional chorus highlighting artistry within the Black and LatinX communities, for whom Thompson composed The Caged Bird Sings for Freedom.
Of this 2016 piece, which sets Maya Angelou’s poem Caged Bird, Thompson writes:
“The first refrain of the piece is not sung but played by the clarinet in order to establish the instrumental as the titular character. The music accompanying the second verse about the free bird (“thinks of another breeze...”) effectively transforms from adventurous to menacing to highlight Angelou’s subtle hints at imperialism and economic conquest (“trade winds soft”, “claims the sky his own”). During the subsequent verse, the clarinet – as avatar of the caged bird – wails and slowly dies while trilling and eventually settles on a B, which is seamlessly transferred to a wordless chorus. A soloist sings the caged bird refrain for the first time, resurrecting the fallen clarinet. The intent is to have the chorus now represent the caged bird, keeping its spirit alive, singing for freedom.”
James Baker
Julian Bingham
Taryn Campbell
Jack Cecere
Cian Connolly
Lorelei Cramer
Daniel Edelman
Lucas Fernandez
Erik Figueroa
Will Geiger
Isaac Hophan
Daquan Jarrett
Emmanuel Jeffreys
Story Korkis
Morgan Linn
Alexander Miller
Liam Mylan
Luke Ovsag
G Owusu
Kaiden Reitz
Joel Rivera
Elijah Shin
Caden Sitts
Will Vetter
Ryan Yuu
Alan Zimmerman
Ashley Brokaw
Kathleen Buffaline
Sammi Bullock
Bean Cesari
Sybella Chaine
Scarlett Coons
Chloe Cramer
Isabella Cruz
Kerry Cullen
Jillian Doyle
Heidi Engelbert
Chloe Farkouh
Raegan Fritts
Cherylanne Garrett
Cordelia Gilbert
Katie Greenwood
Acorn Hatton
Elizabeth Hercek
Scarlett Hickman
Eden Jordan
Janelle Jusino
Emma Kirk
Ana Kirsch
Maura Lander
Brianna Lee
Katie Lehmann
Lily Lemery-Allen
Angelina Lix
Trinity Madison
Bella Mastagni
Nora Michaud
Gwen O'Bannon
Brooke Oreglio
Ella Padilla
Acadia Paradee
Gialina Ploutz
Ellie Pokabla
Regina Ramirez-Sastre
Alanna Ramos
Lauren Ravas
Jaden Rieck
Elena Rodenborn
Kelly Rogers
Victoria Schecter
Savannah Schneider
Rachel Somers
Kari Sparks
Tahlia Stefanik
Olivia Stockage
Sammie Tesoriero
Isabella Travers
Mireida Villaronga
Rebecca Wielhouwer
Scarlett Wilder
Genesis Williams
Maia Wong
Ellie Babbitt
Sofia Beaulieu
Julian Bingham
Brendan Blazier
Caroline Buell
Kaitlyn Campbell
Hope Carey
Cody Chelune
Grace Commisso
Cian Connolly
Darren De Leon
Jack Delman
Henry Denton
Molly Dubner
Amara Evans
Jasmine Foster
Abinaya Ganesh
Trevor Griffiths
Isabella Grimaldi
Lusi Halaifonua
Catherine Hayes
Julia Huff
Anastasia Inglima
Alexandra Ives
Sabina Jungkeit
Michael Kauffman
Jonathan Kuster
Christian Laughlin
Ally Lemon
Will Lesser
Allison Lewis
Morgan Linn
Lucy Montgomery
Paul Narkewich
Amelia Ostamendy
Jack Patterson
Bria Petrella
Alanna Ramos
Grace Rankel
Hayley Rayfield
Jayar Rhoades
Sofie Santoro
Charlie Shanton
Anushka Sharma
Jayna Simeon
Sarah Smith
Katie Sochor
Rachel Somers
Nikki Sutera
Emma Thomas
Grace Tomasula
Faith Tomasula
Owen Umiker
Aidan Zajkowski