My Flame the Song
We share a fierce, impassioned singing of the life of love. We sing in the lives we lead, in the way we respond to the cry in the human heart. Our lives unfold the powerful potential of love that lives in each one of us, as friends, parents, siblings, partners, colleagues. In making music, singing together lights an extraordinary process in us: we connect from the depths of our beings with each other, with this shared spiritual flame within us, we connect to those we have lost, to those who have sung the same music, we connect to the eternal singing of that vast, eternal chord of being human. In performing this work, you will pass on the flame to others. You become its music, its words: your spirit cries out, here.
Commissioned for the St. Edward's University Masterworks Singers and Dr. H. Morris Stevens Jr.
DETAILS:
- Instrumentation: SATB & piano
- Duration: 5 minutes
-
Author/lyricist: Euan Tait
- Language: English
- Year: 2017
- Licensing: Boosey & Hawkes
THE TEXT
I give this flame, my flame the song,
I pass it from my life to yours,
it gathers strength, through names we’ve loved,
you catch the flame and your name shines.
The fragile flame
held in the heart,
it joins us all,
love to love.
The human voice,
our flame the song,
so fierce its flame,
it cries out love,
love gathering,
love burning,
the life of music’s heart.
We know the wounds, the tear of grief,
the flame extinguished, sudden dark,
the silent voice, the empty road,
the lives we love torn out by the roots.
The fragile flame
held in the heart,
it joins us all,
love to love.
The human voice,
our flame the song,
so fierce its flame,
it cries out love,
so far off,
yet calling,
to lives on distant shores.
We gaze at love,
love gazes back;
see, love’s tears
burn on the ground,
love catches fire from our pain.
The fragile flame
held in the heart,
it joins us all,
love to love.
The human voice,
our flame the song,
so fierce its flame,
it cries out love
approaching,
and calling
to lives that cry for song.
We’re drawn to light, drawn to the heart,
drawn to this music, fire of song;
our fears transform, through music’s pain,
to fire of life, compassion, flame.
The fragile flame
held in the heart,
it joins us all,
love to love.
The human voice,
our flame the song,
so fierce its flame,
it cries out love
approaching
and calling,
a healing song of life.
by Euan Tait
Instrumentation: SATB, SSAA, or TTBB div. unaccompanied
Duration:5minutes
Author/lyricist:Anon 20th century
Language: English
Year: 2011
Licensing: Norsk Musikkforlag
A work about hope in the darkest time of life. The text was written by a Jew hiding in Cologne, Germany, during World War 2 where the text was found scratched onto a wall.
Commissioned by the St. Olaf Festival (Olavsfestdagene) in Trondheim, Norway, and premiered on July 30 by the Nidaros Cathedral Girls' Choir at an event with the bishop of Nidaros Tor Singsås and actress Liv Ullmann. The SATB version was premiered by the Nidaros Cathedral Boys' Choir on November 26, 2011, in Nidaros Cathedral, Trondheim. A TTBB version was commissioned and premiered by Chor Leoni and conductor Erick Lichte in 2017. Arrangments for wind ensemble or brass band are also available.
I believe in the sun, even when it's not shining.
I believe in love, even when I feel it not.
I believe in God, even when He is silent.
Anon. 20th Century
