Song of the Mountains

For mixed choir (SSAATB) with piano accompaniment- Duration: 6 minutes
Listen:
Allow a minute for the music to load
If the music doesn't play, get QuickTime for free.
If no menu bar appears on the left, click here: www.gregbartholomew.com to go to the website's home page.

A setting of text adapted from prose by American naturalist John Muir (1838-1914). Commissioned for the Combined Choirs of St. Joseph's School, Seattle, directed by Rick Boyle, who premiered the piece at Benaroya Hall's Nordstrom Recital Hall on May 6, 2004, in the second annual "New Works New Hope" concert for the benefit of Gilda's Club Seattle. The piece was revised in 2007 and the premiere of the revised score will be given on November 16, 2007, by the Queens College Chorus at the Aaron Copland School of Music in New York.

Song of the Mountains

John Muir (1838-1914)

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.
Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.
The winds will blow their freshness into you,
and the storms their energy,
while cares drop off like autumn leaves.

Here is calm so deep, grasses cease waving.
Everything in wild nature fits into us,
as if truly part and parent of us.
The sun shines not on us but in us.

The rivers flow not past, but through us,
thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell
of the substance of our bodies,
Making them glide and sing.

The trees wave and the flowers bloom
in our bodies as in our souls,
and every bird song, wind song,
and tremendous storm song of the rocks
in the heart of the mountain, is our song,
our very own, and sings our love.

Return to Choral Compositions
www.gregbartholomew.com