Amo! (I Love!) was conceived as a trilogy. However, the three parts may be performed separately, unaccompanied or with harp.

Harp Part: 7031

Amo! (I Love!) was conceived as a trilogy. However, the three parts may be performed separately, unaccompanied or with harp.

Harp Part: 7275

Steven Sametz's remarkable stylized treatment of this traditional spiritual with its powerful solo and haunting choral writing will leave audiences staggered. Requires an accomplished soloist (tenor or possibly alto) and a strong choir.ÊJo-Michael Scheibe Choral Series.

Dudaryku (The Piper) was introduced to me by my friend Natalka Pavlovsky as 'the Ukrainian version of Der Leiermann' (The Organ Grinder). Like Schubert's famous Lied, this Ukrainian folksong hauntingly evokes the song of the town musician using the simple drone of his instrument. Dudaryku pays homage to the beloved piper who once played for the townspeople. Several factors coalesced to create Dudaryku. I considered the many traditions of folksongs in western music: the simple folksong without accompaniment; arrangements (like the 19th century arrangement of Dudaryku by Leontovich); and the composition of new work in a folk style (exemplified in works of Brahms and Stephen Foster). The intersection of these traditions - using the old, the borrowed, and the new - intrigued me Dudaryku begins with a newly composed setting of the folksong text which laments the loss of the treasured town musician. There is a transition, referencing Leon

Country: Ukraine

Orch version full score: #7614
parts: #7615
Chamber Ensemble full score: #7612
parts: #7613

A German Folksong about love.

Country: German

Set to the poetry of the 16th-century Spanish Carmelite priest, San Juan de la Cruz, this piece (and its companion, 7351) can read as secular love songs. Actually, however, they are religious allegory. "Luz y amor" ("Light and Love") appears to be about "a solitary bird," but contains five pieces of advice for those seeking a deeper relationship with God: always be aware of God's presence; strip away everything that is not God; be open and listen for the voice of the Holy One; let go of your own ambitions and attachments; and sing sweetly of the delight of Love. Duration: 2:30

Set to the poetry of the 16th-century Spanish Carmelite priest, San Juan de la Cruz (St. John of the Cross,) this piece (and its companion, 7350) can appear to be a secular love song. But it is actually religious allegory in which the Soul is singing to God. He is strong and magnificent as a mountain; comforting as the cool, shady woods; filled with unexpected delights like an exotic island; possesses her powerfully like a roaring river; thrills her with a touch like a breeze on the skin; fills her and satisfies her like a delicious meal; opens her eyes to the unexpected, like the dawn. As they rest together in the tranquil night, the soul delights in these feelings like being filled with glorious music that can truly be heard only in silence. In that moment, we are given a luxurious silence, surrounded by gorgeous music, in which we, too, may simply breathe, delight and rest in the presence of Love. Duration: 2:30

Bosnian Folk song

Country: Bosnia

An atmospheric setting of a Northern Thai folk song. The song has a charming, simple tune clothed with rich harmonies, and a non-singing English translation is provided together with notes on pronunciation.

Country: Thailand

Derivative of #7423
Commissioned as part of the 25th anniversary celebration of the Lehigh University Choral Union (Bethlehem, PA) for Chanticleer

Russian folk song

Country: Russia

for SSAATTBB unaccompanied

"I encountered The Windhover in graduate school, and it made such a strong impression, but was so daunting a work, that I waited nearly three decades to set it. Hopkins combines a poetic vocabulary drawn from his study of Welsh with a sense of the sacred inherent in his calling to the priesthood. The language Hopkins used to depict the central image of the poem, that of a falcon hovering on the air, is already so musical that it took some time for me to come to a harmonic vocabulary that I thought might express the essential ecstatic nature of the poem Hopkins wrote of an 'inscape' in his poetry, an inner landscape revealed behind the words themselves. The poems were intended to touch the unique interior life that words can only describe. For me, this is the realm where music is strongest. As the poet and storyteller Hans Christian Anderson wrote, 'where words fail, music begins.' As composers of words and music, we are called upon not merely to set words, but to enhance the i

Winner of the 2011 Raymond W. Brock Commission, by the ACDA

Winner of the 2011 Raymond W. Brock Commission, by the ACDA

Steven Sametz set Carl Sandburg's evocative poem "Clark Street Bridge" using digitally delayed vibraphone (or viola) to enhance the ghostly voices of broken hearts left in the mist of night.

A nonsense song which allows for simple staging if the individual singers make the nonsense into a language which only they understand--argumentative, fraternal, confrontational--whatever comes to mind.