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April 25, 2026
7:30 pm
Knox United Church
838 Spadina Crescent E. Saskatoon, SK
ANIMATED
– music for life
Settle in for an evening filled with rich harmony, heartfelt performances, and unforgettable moments at ANIMATED – music for life.
This spring concert highlights the rich choral art of NORTH SKY CHORALE with the YXE Quartet (strings) and featured guests EMMA & PAULINA (vocal duet).
In the acoustically beautiful and historical KNOX UNITED CHURCH (Saskatoon), hear life-affirming sound flow through new works, beloved classics, and contemporary voices with pieces by Gjeilo, Aleotti, Mozart, Youmi, Whitacre, VIDA, and more.
Performers
Richard Janzen, Artistic Director
(more bio information in ABOUT US.)
Every individual on this beautiful blue planet of ours experiences music in some way. Some by creating, some by performing, some by listening. Music is our go-to art form when we seek calm, or inspiration, or motivation. This art form is experienced in a moment, yet fills us for many moments that follow.
We experience life in much the same way. We live moment by moment, but what we have experienced in the past AND in the moment informs what we hope for in the future.
The thematic inspiration for this concert came out of a listening spree of music from animated (and anime) shows, where the music itself helps bring the animation to life. And while not each song on the program today can be attached to movies or shows, each one brings an element of animation – that which gives life to our communities and relationships.
If this program were a Venn diagram, there would be a complex overlap. For physical health we need elements to produce food for life – Earth, Air, Rain, Sun (Gjeilo, Mozart, Aleotti, VIDA). For emotional health we need love and care for each other (Cold Play, Windborne, Youmi, Whitacre). The always-present river in Saskatoon is both a place for contemplation (Janzen) and a barrier to be bridged (Simon).
This concert will hopefully intersect these circles of life, just as in the moment our music will intersect the lived experience of performer and listener.
Audrey Falk Janzen, Collaborative Pianist
(more bio information in ABOUT US.)
A few weeks ago, I was captivated by the ARTEMIS II mission to orbit the moon. I’ve always enjoyed movies about space – Apollo 13; The Martian; Hidden Figures; and lately, Project Hail Mary – but watching this mission unfold in real time on NASA’s YouTube channel was an actual reality show, but very different in nature.
This show wasn’t about division, or scandal, or ego: instead, it demonstrated to the world what collaboration truly means. Four very different people, representing diverse gender and ethnicity, reflecting a wide range of experience in outer space, and from both the US and Canada, proved that kindness and working together for a common good can happen – even in very cramped quarters! The monumental efforts of this mission involved people from around the world, and I was struck by how many times each of these astronauts mentioned the word “collaboration.”
My degree in piano collaboration means my focus is making music with others, whether it’s with one singer or instrumentalist, or an entire group of them. Each choir member in North Sky, and indeed, in any choir, needs everyone else to animate the music. Of course, it is always possible to make music on one’s own, but there is a collective element that combines in new ways each time we do music together.
The other take-away for me from the ARTEMIS mission was hope. There is still curiosity, wonder, and collegiality in the human condition that was inspiring to witness. I hope that you experience some of these qualities today in Animated.
Emma & Paulina Vocal Duet
Emma Gillingham (right)
Soprano Paulina Salisbury is studying classical voice under the tutelage of Janice Paterson and collaborative pianist Karen Reynaud. She is the proud winner of the 2025 Kinsmen Classical Voice competition and was proud to represent Team Saskatchewan at the Canada West Performing Arts Festival in both Voice (Runner Up) and Musical Theatre (Honourable Mention). She is a Provincial Music Festival winner in the Opera class, as well as a Provincials Grand Awards finalist. Paulina has performed in the chorus of Puccini’s Tosca and as Monica in Menotti’s The Medium with the Saskatoon Opera and the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra. She is a member of the Fireside singers, where she has been honoured to be featured as a soloist. She has also been involved in numerous music performances and musicals around the city, including Fiddler on the Roof with Persephone Theatre. She is currently in her fourth year of her joint B.ED and BFA degrees at the University of Saskatchewan, and plans to pursue her Vocal studies upon graduation.
Soprano Emma Gillingham is a 4th-year student in her Bachelor of Music in vocal performance, where she studies with Dr. Betty Allison. Active in the Saskatoon music community for over a decade, Emma has garnered recognition for her performances in classical voice, musical theatre, jazz, and speech arts. Emma is currently a part of the University of Saskatchewan Greystone Singers, a singer for the University of Saskatchewan Jazz Band, and a member of the Music as Theatre ensemble. Other than performing, Emma enjoys teaching voice and piano to students and running a music program in Hague, Saskatchewan. Emma is thrilled to be joining North Sky Chorale as a guest artist for this concert.
YXE Quartet
Drusilla Waltz, Violin
Wagner Barbosa, Violin
Sarah Ter Velde, Viola
Lloyd Rowson, Cello
YXE Quartet is a Saskatoon-based string quartet specializing in live music for weddings and special events throughout Saskatchewan. From timeless classical elegance to contemporary pop favourites, YXE Quartet provides the perfect soundtrack for life’s most meaningful moments.
North Sky Chorale
(more information in ABOUT US.)
North Sky Chorale is thrilled to bring this concert cycle to life. We sing because for us, music IS life. It energizes and refreshes us. We meet and prepare together for such a short time, yet as soon as a cycle is done we are thinking about the next one!
We are so excited about many things in this concert. This marks the second concert in a row where we get to premiere a composition by one of our own. “This Beloved River” is a newly composed piece by NSC Artistic Director Richard Janzen, using a poem by Saskatonian Eileen Klassen Hamm. We are very familiar with the weir on the South Saskatchewan River. For many of us it is a place for deliberate pause and reflection. The river in Saskatoon is the city’s lifeblood.
We are also happy to feature Emma Gillingham and Paulina Salisbury, the soloists for this evening. Emma has often participated as a choir member in North Sky, and Paulina is a regular performer with our friends at The Fireside Singers. Both singers are rising stars in Saskatoon and beyond!
Saskatoon is blessed with many amazing musicians. Thank you to the YXE Quartet for your part in opening the concert.
We hope that our performance this evening brings a freshness to your soul. May your hearts be enlivened by the music we share.
North Sky Chorale is a mixed voice choir based in and around Saskatoon, SK. They have become known for heartfelt performances of music as vast as the living skies of Saskatchewan.
Program Notes
*Canadian Composer/Writer
°With YXE Quartet
†World Premiere Performance
NORTH SKY CHORALE
YXE String Quartet
Audrey Falk Janzen, Piano
LATIN
Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua. Osana in excelsis.
Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domina.
Benedictus qui venit. Osana in excelsis.
Agnus Dei, qui tolis peccata mundi.
Dona nobis pacem
ENGLISH
Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
Blessed is the one who comes. Hosanna in the highest.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,
Grant us peace.
Ola Gjeilo describes this piece on his website olagjeilo.com: “The Ground is based on a chorale from the last movement of my Sunrise Mass (2008) for choir and string orchestra. The chorale, beginning at Pleni sunt caeli in that movement is the culmination of the Mass, and it’s called The Ground because I wanted to convey a sense of having ‘arrived’ at the end of the Mass; to have reached a kind of peace and grounded strength after the long journey of the Mass, having gone through a lot of different emotional landscapes.
“I wanted to make a version that could be performed independent of the Mass and one that was also more accessible in terms of instrumentation, with a piano & optional string quartet accompaniment.”
YXE String Quartet
LATIN
Ave verum corpus natum de Maria Virgine,
Vere passum, immolatum
in cruce pro homine.
Cujus latus perforatum
unda fluxit et sanguine;
Esto nobis praegustatum
In mortis examine.
ENGLISH
Hail, true Body, born of the Virgin Mary,
who having truly suffered, was sacrificed
on the cross for humankind.
From whose pierced side
flowed (with water) and blood;
May it be for us a foretaste of the Heavenly banquet
in the trial of death.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s setting of Ave verum corpus (K. 618) was written for Anton Stoll (a friend of his and Haydn’s) who was musical co-ordinator in the parish of Baden, near Vienna. It was composed to celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi and the autograph is dated 17 June 1791. It is only forty-six bars long and is scored for choir, stringed instruments, and organ. Mozart”s manuscript itself contains minimal directions, with only a single sotto voce at the beginning. The piece remains the gold standard of choral beauty.
Mozart was already facing his final year of life, and you can hear that bridge between earth and the divine in every measure. It’s a reminder that true immortality isn’t about complexity; it’s about reaching the human soul with the simplest possible tools.
Ave verum corpus is a short Eucharistic hymn dating from the 14th century and attributed to Pope Innocent VI (d. 1362), which has been set to music by various composers. During the Middle Ages it was sung at the elevation of the host during the consecration. It was also used frequently during Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
ITALIAN
Hor che la vaga aurora
Sovra un caro di foco
Appar in ogni loco
Co’l figlio di Latona
Che’l suo dorato crine
A l’Alpi e a le campagne
À noi vicine mostra
Con dolci accenti
Questi la ben temprata lira suona
Onde gli spirti
Pellegrini intenti
Odono l’armonia
Che l’alme nostre al ciel erg’et invia
ENGLISH
Oh, how the beautiful dawn
driving a chariot of fire
appears in every location
with the son of Latona
how his golden hair
on the Alps and the countryside
to our vicinity shows
with sweet accents
like the well-tuned lyre
that the spirits
wandering intently
hear the harmony
that invites our souls to heaven.
Vittoria Aleotti (c. 1575 – after 1620) was an Italian Augustinian nun, a composer, and organist of the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. She is recognized as one of the earliest known female composers to have works published, contributing to the development of sacred and secular vocal music.
Aleotti was a nun at the Convent of San Vito in Ferrara, where she composed and performed music. Her published works include madrigals and sacred motets, notably appearing in the 1593 collection “Il giardino de’ musici di Donne.” Some scholars believe she may also have been the composer known as Raffaella Aleotta (c. 1570 – after 1646), who also published a collection of sacred motets in 1593, however this has not been historically proven. After 1593, Vittoria disappeared from the historical record, while Raffaella gained tremendous fame.
Vittoria’s contributions to music were significant in an era when female composers were rare, and her works remain a subject of interest in studies of women in Renaissance music.
“Hor che la vaga aurora” was first published in 1593, which means Vittoria Aleotti would have been 18 years of age (or less) at the time of composition.
Audrey Falk Janzen, piano
When you try your best but you don’t succeed,
When you get what you want, but not what you need,
When you feel so tired, but you can’t sleep.
Stuck in reverse.
And the tears come streaming down your face,
When you lose something you can’t replace,
When you love someone, but it goes to waste.
Could it be worse?
Lights will guide you home, and ignite your bones,
And I will try to fix you.
And high up above, or down below,
When you’re too in love to let it go,
But if you never try, you’ll never know
Just what you’re worth.
Lights will guide you home, and ignite your bones,
And I will try to fix you.
Tears stream down your face,
When you lose something you cannot replace.
Tears stream down your face,
I promise you I will learn from my mistakes.
Tears stream down your face,
And I…
Lights will guide you home, and ignite your bones,
And I will try to fix you.
George Chung (b.1986) enjoys playing the piano and the violin, having received an ARCT from the Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto) for both instruments. His was an accompanist for the Coquitlam District Chorus and was most recently the regular accompanist for the Coastal Sound Youth Choir. He performs on the violin with the Solaris Piano Trio, a Vancouver-area group. In addition to his musical endeavors, he earned a doctorate in Medical Genetics from the University of British Columbia and is currently residing in New York City for post-doctoral training in the field.
We plough and sow, we are so low, that we delve in the dirty clay,
′Til we bless the plain with golden grain
And the vale with the fragrant hay.
Our place we know we are so low, down at the landlord’s feet.
We′re not too low the bread to grow but too low the bread to eat.
We’re low, we’re low, we are so low yet from our fingers glide
The silken flow and the robes that glow
′Round the limbs of the sons of pride.
And what we get and what we give we know and we know our share:
We′re not too low the cloth to weave but too low the cloth to wear.
Down down we go, we are so low, to the hell of the deep-sunk mine,
But we gather the proudest gems that glow
When the crown of the despot shines.
Whenever he lacks upon our backs fresh loads he deigns to lay.
We’re far too low to vote the tax but not too low to pay.
We′re low, we’re low as to war we go to fight some foreign country
That was yesterday our greatest friend but today′s our enemy.
“God bless our boys!” the papers scream
“Praise them!” the churchmen cry.
When the war is won and home we come, who cares if we live or die?
We’re low, so low, into boats we go to flee war in our home country,
And we′ll try to make a better life when we land across the sea.
But it’s “Send them back!” the press cries out
“Back to where they came!”
We’re far too low to feed and clothe but not too low to blame.
We are so low but soon we know that the low folk will arise,
And the tyrants in their tow′rs of gold shall hear the people′s cries
No more shall they hold us in thrall;
their lies we will not heed.
But every heart shall hear the call and the people will be free.
Notes from Windborne: “Song of the Lower Classes came out of the Chartist movement for voting rights in the UK in the 1830s and 40s. A leader of the Chartists and a prolifc poet, Ernest Jones was thrown in prison for his writings, which were considered seditious but continue to ring true over a century later. His words have inspired many others to add to this piece over the years, including us. We wrote our verses in 2016 at the height of the crisis in Syria, which was the particular reference for our verse about refugees, although that tragedy is far from the only situation either in which people have been forced to flee their homeland because of violence and persecution.”
This song also changed the course of Windborne’s professional trajectory, when a video of them singing it outside Trump Tower in New York City just before the inauguration in 2017 went viral. They were flooded with people asking to bring music of protest and resistance to their communities, and they made the decision then to dive into touring full time.”
EMMA & PAULINA
We open with Connie Francis’ Pretty Little Baby arranged by Saskatoon musician Keegan Isaac. Originally released in 1962, this song just recently gained popularity again before Connie Francis’ passing in 2025. This song brings a sense of innocence and sincerity, capturing the excitement and sweetness of young love.
Pretty little baby (yeah, yeah)
Pretty little baby (yeah, yeah)
Pretty little baby, you say that maybe
You’ll be thinkin’ of me, and try to love me
Pretty little baby
I’m hoping that you do
You can ask the flowers, I sit for hours
Tellin’ all the bluebirds, the bill and coo birds
Pretty little baby
I’m so in love with you
Now is just the time
While both of us are young
Puppy love must have it’s day
Don’t cha know it’s much more fun to love
While the heart is young and gay
Meet me at the car hop
Or at the pop shop
Meet me in the moonlight
Or in the daylight
Pretty little baby
I’m so in love with you
Now is just the time…
Meet me at the car hop
Or at the pop shop
Meet me in the moonlight
Or in the daylight
Pretty little baby
I’m so in love with you
Pretty little baby
I said, pretty little baby
Whoa, now, pretty little baby
This young love moves into the duet Prenderò Quel Brunettino from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Così fan tutte. In this songthe two sisters Dorabella and Fiordiligi discuss which of two suitors they will pursue. This light hearted duet comes after a conversation where it is decided that there is no harm in a little flirtation!
ITALIAN
Poetry: Ferrando, Guglielmo e Don Alfonso
DORABELLA:
Prenderò quel brunettino, Che più lepido mi par.
FIORDILIGI:
Ed intanto io col biondino vo’ un po’ ridere e burlar.
DORABELLA:
Scherzosetta, ai dolci detti Io di quel risponderò.
FIORDILIGI:
Sospirando, i sospiretti Io dell’altro imiterò.
DORABELLA:
Mi dirà: Ben mio, mi moro!
FIORDILIGI:
Mi dirà: Mio bel tesoro!
FIORDILIGI E DORABELLA:
Ed intanto che diletto, che spassetto
io proverò!
ENGLISH
Translation: Edward J. Dent
DORABELLA:
I’ll take the brunette – I fancy him more.
FIORDILIGI:
And meanwhile, I’ll have a laugh with the blonde.
DORABELLA:
I’ll have a nice little chat.
FIORDILIGI:
I’ll be in a dream with the other.
DORABELLA:
He’ll tell me he could die for me.
FIORDILIGI:
He’ll call me: My beautiful darling
FIORDILIGI and DORABELLA:
He’ll tell me he’s my beloved, what fun we’re going to have.
Next is a comedic number from the 1996 Broadway musical comedy “I Love You, You’re Perfect, now Change“. SINGLE MAN DROUGHT is a song that captures the frustrations of modern dating from a woman’s perspective. In this scene, two women humorously lament the apparent shortage of eligible men.
Jimmy Roberts is an American composer for the musical theatre as well as a pianist and entertainer. His musical scores include: I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (1996) and The Thing About Men (2003), both with book and lyrics by Joe DiPietro. He is a 1977 graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with the noted pianist, Constance Keene.
Women 1
Help me
Women 2
Help me
Both
Help me
Women 2
To think he thinks he’s at his best, no thought tonight has he represed.
He talks and talks and eyes my breast there’s a serious single man drought.
Women 1
Now some would say a catch I found.
He’s single, straight, his mind is sound.
There’s four guys left like him around.
There’s a serious single man drought.
Women 2
I can’t believe he’s talking still.
Women 1
Oh God I need a scotch refill.
Women 2
He chews
Women 1
He spews
Both
I could use a pill. There’s a serios single man drought.
Women 1
Standards, I used to have some standards.
But man by man every standerd meaindered from me.
Women 2
Lesbian, I should be a lesbian.
If I was born to love women how wondersully sane I would be.
Women 1
I could grow old, alone just fine.
Women 2
I’ll buy some cats like 29.
Both
They’ll find me dead in my feline shrine.
There’s a serious single man drought.
So I date bob and hope and flirt, he might get better by dessert.
I stay, I pray, still I assert, there’s a serious single man, deleirous single man…
Both
And let me take care of the check.
Both
Lets split it.
Women 1
I’m lying
Women 2
I’m lying
Both
I’m really lying
Both
No its on me
Both Women
You bet your sweet macho gold card it is.
Cause there’s a serious, delierious, severious, varbirious, send
the marines we’re talking serious, single man drought! (click) Ladies room!
I Am a Girl Like You from the 2004 movie, Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper is a duet that brings together two young women from completely different worlds and connects them through unexpected friendship. This song explores themes of understanding, identity and empathy, highlighting that people are often more alike than they first appear.
lyrics
We conclude our program with the romantic Belle Nuit that takes place in Act Two of Offenbach’s three separate love stories. It is a “barcarolle” which is similar to a gondolier’s boat song. It is sung by the characters Giuliette and Nicklausse and tells of a beautiful, magical night, admiring the moonlight and the romantic atmosphere.
Jacques Offenbach was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s.
lyrics
INTERVAL (10 minutes)
NORTH SKY CHORALE
JAPANESE
Yondeiru Mune no Dokoka Okude
Itsumo Kokoro Odoru Yume wo Mitai
Kanashimi wa Kazoekirenai kedo
Sono Mukou de Kitto Anata ni Aeru
Kurikaesu Ayamachi no Sonotabi Hito wa
Tada Aoi Sora no Aosa wo Shiru
Hateshinaku Michi wa Tsuzuite Mieru keredo
Kono Ryoute wa Hikari wo Dakeru
Sayonara no Toki no Shizukana Mune
Zero ni Naru Karada ga Mimi wo Sumaseru
Ikiteiru Fushigi Sinde Iku Fusigi
Hana mo Kaze mo Machi mo Minna Onaji
Yondeiru Mune no Dokoka Oku de
Itsumo Nando demo Yume wo Egakou
Kanashimi no Kazu wo Iitsukusu yori
Onaji Kuchibiru de Sotto Utaou
Tojiteiku Omoide no Sono Naka ni Itsumo
Wasure takunai Sasayaki wo Kiku
Konagona ni Kudakareta Kagami no Ue nimo
Atarashii Keshiki ga Utsusareru
Hajimari no Asa Shizuka na Mado
Zero ni Naru Karada Mitasarete Yuke
Umi no Kanata niwa Mou Sagasanai
Kagayaku Mono wa Itsumo Koko ni
Watashi no Naka ni Mitsukerareta Kara
ENGLISH
Somewhere, a voice calls in the depths of my heart
May I always be dreaming, the dreams that move my heart
So many tears of sadness, uncountable through and through
I know on the other side of them, I’ll find you
Every time we fall down to the ground we look up to the blue sky above
We wake to it’s blueness as for the first time
Though the road is long and lonely and the end far away, out of sight
I can with these two arms embrace the light
As I bid farewell my heart stops, in tenderness I feel
My silent empty body begins to listen to what is real
The wonder of living, the wonder of dying
The wind, town, and flowers, we all dance one unity
Somewhere, a voice calls in the depths of my heart
Keep dreaming your dreams, don’t ever let them part
Why speak of all your sadness or of life’s painfull woes
Instead let the same lips sing a gentle song for you
The whispering voice we never want to forget
In each passing memory always there to guide you
When a miror has been broken, shattered pieces scattered on the ground
Glimpses of new life reflected all around
Window of beginning, stillness, new light of the dawn
Let my silent, empty body be filled and reborn
No need to search outside, nor sail across the sea
Cause here shining inside me, it’s right here inside me
I’ve found a brightness, it’s always with me.
Yumi Kimura (木村 弓) is a Japanese singer and lyre performer. She was born in Osaka, Japan, and became known in 2001 for her song “Always With Me” (いつも何度でも, Itsumo Nando Demo), which served as the closing theme to the popular Studio Ghibli anime film “Spirited Away” by Hayao Miyazaki.
Born and raised in Winnipeg’s West End, Philip Lapatha has been shaped by inspiring teachers, long-lasting friendships, and loving family ties. He lives in downtown Winnipeg and is a proud supporter of the city’s local coffee, bakery, and artisan scene. He is currently director of Winnipeg Sonora Voices Chamber Ensemble.
Audrey Falk Janzen, piano
Oh, hush thee, my baby, the night is behind us
And black are the waters that sparkled so green
The moon, o’er the combers, looks downward to find us
At rest in the hollows that rustle between
Where billow meets billow, then soft be thy pillow
Oh weary wee flipperling, curl at thy ease
The storm shall not wake thee, nor shark overtake thee
Asleep in the arms of the slow swinging seas
Asleep in the arms of the slow swinging seas
Rudyard Kipling’s “Seal Lullaby” first appeared in 1893 in the story “The White Seal,” which was published in the English magazine National Review. The story became part of The Jungle Book, published in 1894, as one of the few stories that does not take place in India. “The White Seal” comments on community, vulnerability, and violence while using an imperiled seal colony as an allegorical setting. The poem “Seal Lullaby” appears in the story as a mother seal’s song of reassurance to her child.
From the urging of legendary composer Stephen Schwartz, Hollywood animators came calling to Eric Whitacre regarding a planned animated feature film based on Rudyard Kipling’s story “The White Seal” for which they wanted music. And thus “The Seal Lullaby” came in to being. However, the movie studio eventually decided to go in a different direction (end result “Kung Fu Panda”) and the song remained unpublished and unperformed until The Towne Singers commissioned a completed choral arrangement of the original concept. In Whitacre’s own words: “The White Seal is a beautiful story, classic Kipling, dark and rich and not at all condescending to kids. Best of all, Kipling begins his tale with the mother seal singing softly to her young pup. (The opening poem is called The Seal Lullaby). I’m especially grateful to Stephen Schwartz, to whom the piece is dedicated. His friendship and invaluable tutelage has meant more to me than I could ever tell him.”
WORLD PREMIERE PERFORMANCE
Here
A daily pause,
In the early morning,
to toss into this beloved river
my handful, sometimes an armload of prayers
Here
A daily pause,
In the early morning,
Prayers for kin, companions, and unnamed ones
for territories and landscapes, scattered,
scattered along the life giving* waterways of our world
Here
A daily pause,
In the early morning,
Here
A daily pause.
Here.
*the original word in Eileen’s poem is “carrying”
Eileen Klassen Hamm (b. 1965): “The weir on the South Saskatchewan River (kisiskāciwani-sīpiy, which translates from Cree to “swift flowing river”) in Saskatoon is near the halfway mark of my bicycle commute from my home in Buena Vista to my work at MCC – a global Anabaptist relief, development, and peacebuilding organization. I have made it a practice to stop at the weir for a pause. A pause to drink some water, to pay attention to the mood of the sky, and to pray. The river reminds me that the world is a beautifully and painfully connected place. The water flowing here may have previously been rain in the Middle East or tears in Sudan. Water knows no borders and neither does our love. This daily pause has been restorative for me. It has calmed my breathing, calmed my mind, and helped me to centre myself before the day unfolds. This pause reminds me to be grateful for this particular place, knowing that from here, we can choose to be connected to the whole world.”
Richard Janzen (b. 1964): “I don’t compose original works very often, and I need to let it percolate for a long time before the process of putting ink on paper begins. I came across Eileen’s poetry in 2014 on Facebook when it was still a place where connections and positive sharing of ideas was the norm. This particular one jumped out to me in a way that screamed “this needs to be sung by a choir”. Eileen gave me permission to set it to music immediately, and there it sat, in back of my mind, simmering and popping to mind for the next decade plus. Over this length of time a general idea of how the text should land on sound distilled, until this past year when I finally sat with the text to find an intentional structure.
“I was struck with the sense of “pause” – that is, the point where passage of time seems to stop, much in the same way that water flowing over the weir never changes how it looks while at the same time never ceasing motion.
“If you have been to the weir just down river from this very place, you probably stood and watched, and most likely allowed yourself to fill with many thoughts that need attention, or perhaps need to be released.
“It is my hope that the music reflects the depth of thoughtfulness in this beautiful poem.”
Emma Gillingham & Paulina Salisbury, duet
Ease my spirit, ease my soul,
please free my hands from the barren soil.
Ease my mother, ease my child,
earth and sky be reconciled.
Ease my spirit, ease my soul,
please free my hands from the barren soil.
Ease my mother, ease my child,
earth and sky be reconciled.
Rain, rain, rain.
Rain, rain, rain.
Weave my mother, weave my child,
Weave your baskets of rushes wild.
Weave my mother, weave my child.
Weave your baskets of rushes wild.
Out of heat, under sun comes the hunger to everyone.
Famine′s teeth, famine’s claw on the sands of Africa.
Rain, rain, rain.
Rain, rain, rain.
Weave my mother, weave my child,
Weave your baskets of rushes wild.
Weave my mother, weave my child.
Weave your baskets of rushes wild.
Rain, rain, rain.
Rain, rain, rain.
Inspired by stories of Sudanese basket weavers, this song expresses the pain and hope experienced by this in the famine of the 1980s. In the midst of hardship, a wonderful new sense of creativity emerged when women began weaving baskets as a means of survival. Central to the song is a section of improvisation over shifting chords. VIDA saw the two improvising voices as the voices of women from other cultures raised in empathy.
The vocal quartet, VIDA, was founded in Indiana in 1995, touring and recording with their unique combination of original songs and traditional folk songs from the Americas and Europe. Their songs are built on improvisation, rhythmic play, and unconventional harmonies and forms. The subjects of their songs are the struggles and joys we share across vibrantly different cultures. These songs, and much of VIDA’s vision, is continued by founder Moira Smiley, and her group VOCO. To learn more about VIDA’s music visit www.moirasmiley.com.
Matthew Culloton is Director of Choral Activities at Hopkins High School, Minnesota, MN. He is also active as a singer and conductor of professional choirs.
Audrey Falk Janzen, piano
I’ll be your bridge o’er troubled water,
when you’re down I will carry you
like a bridge o’er troubled water,
I will lay me down.
Who you’re weary, feelin’ small,
when tears are in your eyes I will dry them all;
I’m on your side, oh, when times are rough
and friends just can’t be found
like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down.
When you’re down and out, when you’re on the street, my Lord,
when evening fall so hard I will comfort you.
I’ll take your part, oh, when darkness comes
and pain is all around,
like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down.
I’ll be your bridge o’er troubled water,
when you’re down I will carry you
like a bridge o’er troubled water,
I will lay me down.
Sail on silver girl, sail on by.
You’re time has come to shine, all your dreams are on their way.
See how they shine, oh, if you ever need a friend
look around, I’m sailing right behind you
like a bridge over troubled water I will ease your mind.
I’ll be your bridge o’er troubled water,
when you’re down I will carry you
like a bridge o’er troubled water,
I will lay me down.
NOTES
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