In Youth is Pleasure, for children’s SABar chorus and piano (2001)
Duration: 3’
MP3 Player
Score excerpt
Commissioned by:
Abington Friends School Middle School Chorus; Leandra Merea Strope, conductor
Premiere:
Abington Friends School Middle School Chorus; Leandra Merea Strope, conductor
Abington Friends School, Jenkintown, PA
Spring 2001
Performers in audio recording:
Recording from premiere
Text:
by Robert Wever, 16th century (public domain)
In a harbour grene aslepe whereas I lay,
The byrdes sang swete in the middes of the day,
I dreamed fast of mirth and play:
In youth is pleasure, in youth is pleasure.
Methought I walked still to and fro,
And from her company I could not go--
But when I waked it was not so:
In youth is pleasure, in youth is pleasure.
Therefore my hart is surely pyght
Of her alone to have a sight
Which is my joy and hartes delight:
In youth is pleasure, in youth is pleasure.
Program Notes:
Our Upper School Chorus director, who also directed the Middle School Chorus, encouraged me to compose a new work for the Middle School Chorus to premiere before I graduated. When I had a difficult time finding an appropriate text, she suggested this one.
I enjoyed working with the Middle School Chorus, and I was fortunate to experience so early on the unique challenges and rewards inherent in composing for adolescent singers. In the course of composing this piece, I also learned some important lessons about how to vary strophic lyrics and poems for effective musical setting that I still remember today.
– November 2010