For our first choral destination, Radiance travels to Seattle's constant companion: the sea. William Billings's epic Euroclydon anchors a program of classic American folk hymns in this unique virtual event. The unpredictable waters of the Pacific provide a fitting backdrop for the powerful, ebullient harmonies of shapenote singing. Support us by making a donation! Your contribution helps us perform and record American choral music. https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=9PNGKBKHRTCSL PROGRAM SHUMWAY Schenectady "From all that dwell below the skies" BILLINGS Euroclydon BILLINGS Jordan WATTS Windham BILLINGS Hear my pray'r, O Lord, my God WATTS Montgomery "Early, my God, without delay" WALKER Sweet Prospect "On Jordan's stormy banks I stand" WATTS Rainbow

Words by Solomon J.D. Fendell. "Love Lasts Like a Lily." Poetry Magazine May 1918: 77. Fendell's simple, alliterative poem inspired a musical setting exploring the beauty and expressivity of harmo­ny, dissonance, and meaning in each word. Tonal centers shift throughout and focus on phrases to the point of abstraction, meditating on the general theme of love, its myopic nature, its intensity, its fragility, its capri­ciousness, and its evanescense. About the composer: Stacey Philipps writes music of close, lush harmonies and contrapuntal textures, explor­ing the human experience and timbres of voices and instruments in minute, exposed detail and vibrant, sweeping gestures. A lifelong choral singer, Philipps is an early- and new-music devotee, and currently sings with the Oregon Repertory Singers. Her vocal interests extend to a love of composing choral music and art song, as well as collaborating with solo instrumentalists and chamber music ensembles. She is also a concert producer and arts advocate committed to building community by facilitating the evanescent thrill of live per­formances. Philipps holds degrees in music composition from Portland State University and in philosophy from St. John's College, Santa Fe. She is a member of the American Composers Forum, the National Associa­tion of Composers, Cascadia Composers, and ASCAP and is the proprietor of Sirensong Publishing online at www.staceyphilipps.com. *** Love lasts like a lily, Tender on Time's trail; Breathing burning beauty, Fragrant, fine, and frail.

Caroline Shaw (b. 1982) is a New York-based musician. She is the youngest recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music for her composition Partita for 8 Voices. New York’s Lincoln Center commissioned Shaw along with several other Pulitzer-Prize-winning composers to write a psalm setting for The Psalms Experience, a festival of choral settings of all 150 psalms by 150 different composers. Shaw composed and the swallow, based on Psalm 84 for the occasion. Shaw selected Psalm 84 because it has to do with finding a home and celebrating the sense of safety. *** How beloved is your dwelling place, o lord of hosts, my soul yearns, faints, my heart and my flesh cry out. The sparrow found a house, and the swallow her nest, where she may raise her young. They pass through the Valley of Bakka, they make it a place of springs; the autumn also covers it with pools. *** How to make a virtual choir video - Preparing the Audio (Part 1 of 2) https://www.patreon.com/posts/mt01-how-to-make-37197291

Seattle-based vocal ensemble, Radiance, sings an arrangement of "The Old Churchyard" by Lauren Kastanas. Performed by Radiance Lauren Kastanas, soloist https://www.radiance.org/ https://www.facebook.com/radiancechoir/ Directed by Markdavin Obenza Videography: Willimark Obenza *** Come, come with me to the old churchyard I so well know those paths 'neath the soft green sward Friends slumber in there that we want to regard We will trace out their names in the old churchyard Mourn not for them for their trials are o'er Why weep for those who will weep no more? For sweet is their sleep, though cold and hard Their pillows may be in the old churchyard I know that it's vain when our friends depart To breathe kind words to a broken heart And I know that the joy of life is marred When we follow lost friends to the old churchyard But were I at rest 'neath yonder tree Why would you weep, my friends, for me? I'm so weary, so wayworn, why would you retard The peace I seek in the old churchyard? Why weep for me for I'm anxious to go To that haven of rest where no tears ever flow And I fear none my fate when it's time to depart I will set with the sun in the old churchyard I rest in the hope that one bright day Sunshine will burst through these prisons of clay The trumpets will sound in the hills near and far Will wake up the dead in the old churchyard The trumpets will sound in the hills near and far Will wake up the dead in the old churchyard

This Shaker arrangement by Kevin Siegfried was performed by The Joint Armed Forces Chorus at the State Funeral of President George H. W. Bush. Performed by Radiance Directed and Produced by Markdavin Obenza Videography: Willimark Obenza https://www.radiance.org/ https://www.facebook.com/radiancechoir/ *** Lay me low, lay me low, lay me low. Where the Lord can find me, where the Lord can own me, where the Lord can bless me. -Text and tune, adapted from the Shaker song “Lay Me Low,” by Addah Z. Potter, New Lebanon, New York, ca. 1838

"If ye love me" by Markdavin Obenza (b. 1980), based on English Renaissance composer Thomas Tallis's famous motet by the same name. Singers (Soprano to Bass): Margaret Obenza, Lindsey Long, Sarra Sharif Doyle, Josh Haberman, Orrin Doyle, Jacob Buys, Robin Wyatt-Stone, T.J. Callahan. #songsofcomfort *** If ye love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that he may ‘bide with you forever. *** How to make a virtual choir video - Preparing the Audio (Part 1 of 2) https://www.patreon.com/posts/mt01-how-to-make-37197291

From our virtual concert COLLABORATION: "We Thank Thee" by Kari Cruver Medina. Kari Cruver Medina is a Seattle-based composer whose work spans a broad palate of sty­listic traditions. Her music has been featured across the United States and abroad, with choral and orchestral works premiered recently in both Europe and Asia. www.karimedinamusic.com Sung by Graveyard Girls (dir. Lauren Kastanas), Mägi Ensemble (dir. Heather MacLaughlin Garbes), Sound City Singers (dir. Johanna Olson), and Radiance (dir. Markdavin Obenza). *** For flowers that bloom about our feet; For tender grass so fresh, so sweet; For song of bird and hum of bee; For all things fair we hear or see, Father in heaven, we thank Thee. For blue of stream and blue of sky; For pleasant shade of branches high; For fragrant air and cooling breeze; For beauty of the blooming trees, Father in heaven, we thank Thee. For this new morning with its light, For rest and shelter of the night, For health and food, for love and friends, For everything Thy goodness sends, We thank Thee.

Sung by Graveyard Girls (dir. Lauren Kastanas), Mägi Ensemble (dir. Heather MacLaughlin Garbes), Sound City Singers (dir. Johanna Olson), and Radiance (dir. Markdavin Obenza). The music of award-winning American composer Greg Bartholomew is frequently per­ formed across the United States and in Canada, Europe and Australia. NPR classical music reviewer Tom Manoff called Bartholomew "a fine composer not afraid of accessibility." Bartholomew studied trombone at John Muir Elementary School and piano at Cornish College of the Arts before earning degrees from the College of William & Mary in Virginia and the University of Washington. He sang with Seattle Pro Musica for more than fifteen years and studied violin with Teo Benson. www.gregbartholomew.com *** I love thee when thy swelling buds appear, And one by one their tender leaves unfold, As if they knew that warmer suns were near, Nor longer sought to hide from winter's cold; And when with darker growth thy leaves are seen To veil from view the early robin's nest, I love to lie beneath thy waving screen, With limbs by summer's heat and toil oppress'd; And when the autumn winds have stript thee bare, And round thee lies the smooth, untrodden snow, When naught is thine that made thee once so fair, I love to watch thy shadowy form below, And through thy leafless arms to look above On stars that brighter beam when most we need their love.

Performed by Radiance on February 15, 2020. Frank Ticheli (b. 1958) is best known as a composer of music for concert band, but also writes for choir. Earth Song (2006) is one of his best-known choral works. The writing is simple and straightforward, with an underlying rhythmic and harmonic motif providing a feeling of breath and motion throughout the piece. The text, authored by the composer, mourns the effects environmental devastation and human conflict and suffering, and offers the power of singing as a way of moving forward. The opening and closing exhortations to “sing, be, live, see” are a call to wholeness in a fractured world. *** Sing, Be, Live, See. This dark stormy hour, The wind, it stirs. The scorched earth Cries out in vain: O war and power, You blind and blur, The torn heart Cries out in pain. But music and singing Have been my refuge, And music and singing Shall be my light. A lightof song Shining Strong: Allelulia! Through darkness, pain, and strife, I'll Sing, Be, Live, See... Peace.