A Prayer In Spring
for SATB choir, a cappella
Joy and pleasure, pleasure and joy! Spring is alive with blossoming apple orchards, happy bees, and darting hummingbirds—and our choir, perhaps a bit touched with spring fever, can’t help but tease out the humor just below the surface of Frost’s seasonal celebration. A rousing, Billings-esque interplay of voices ultimately comes together to reflect as one: “For this is love, and nothing else is love.”
SKU: MRS-005
Categories: Choral Music, Mixed Voices
| Descriptive Tags: | American, Animals, Birds, Blessing, Celebratory, Devotion, Earth Week, Flight, Flowers, Fruitful Earth, Fun, Humorous, Hymn, Joy, Love, Madrigal, Nature, Poetry, Prayer, PROJECT : ENCORE, Reverence, Spring, trees |
| Difficulty: | Advanced |
| Duration: | 5-10 Minutes |
| Instrumentation: | A Cappella |
| Language: | English |
| Sacred or Secular: | Sacred, Secular |
| Season or Event: | Earth Day, Love, Spring |
| Voicing: | SSAATTBB |
$3.00
This title is available in print or for immediate download. For both options, there is a minimum required quantity of 8 copies for choral titles. Please support self-publishing composers by ordering the quantity according to the number of singers in the ensemble that will perform the work.
Print orders are printed on demand and shipped by our printing partner, and can be expected to be processed within a few days of the order. Please do not hesitate to contact [email protected] to follow up.
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Title | View | Voicing | Duration | Language | Composer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| SATB+SATB | 1' 45" | English | “Are Friends Delight or Pain?” is a brief a cappella double-choir movement (SATB + SATB, ~1’45”) excerpted from Cycle of Friends, setting Emily Dickinson’s epigram with concentrated intensity. The entire piece rests on a single sustained E—a pedal point whose meaning keeps shifting as the harmony moves through changing modes and colors. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| “Are Friends Delight or Pain?” is a brief a cappella double-choir movement (SATB + SATB, ~1’45”) excerpted from Cycle of Friends, setting Emily Dickinson’s epigram with concentrated intensity. The entire piece rests on a single sustained E—a pedal point whose meaning keeps shifting as the harmony moves through changing modes and colors. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SATB ⋅ SSATTBB ⋅ Unison | 6' 30" | English | ‘Rejoice! A Christmas Fanfare’ was written as the opening number for a series of four Christmas Concerts held in Birmingham’s Symphony Hall in December 2015. As a number of youth choirs and a community chorus were taking part in these concerts, they were all involved individually and jointly in the piece, which was built […] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ‘Rejoice! A Christmas Fanfare’ was written as the opening number for a series of four Christmas Concerts held in Birmingham’s Symphony Hall in December 2015. As a number of youth choirs and a community chorus were taking part in these concerts, they were all involved individually and jointly in the piece, which was built […] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SATB | 5' | This composition won first prize in the Longfellow Choral Composition Competition in 2011. I have enjoyed Longfellow’s poetry for many years–“Excelsior” in particular. However, I’ve never managed to develop a huge amount of sympathy for the poem’s protagonist. Here we have a youth who ignores the advice of everyone around him that his journey was […] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This composition won first prize in the Longfellow Choral Composition Competition in 2011. I have enjoyed Longfellow’s poetry for many years–“Excelsior” in particular. However, I’ve never managed to develop a huge amount of sympathy for the poem’s protagonist. Here we have a youth who ignores the advice of everyone around him that his journey was […] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SATB | 4'36" | Latin | This energetic setting of Gloria in excelsis Deo, from the Latin Mass, opens with rhythmic patterns that enhance the text. Midway through, the chorus softly occults between two simple chords under an alto then baritone soloists. The opening patterns return before a fugal section at the text “cum santo spiritu.” The final Amen is another […] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This energetic setting of Gloria in excelsis Deo, from the Latin Mass, opens with rhythmic patterns that enhance the text. Midway through, the chorus softly occults between two simple chords under an alto then baritone soloists. The opening patterns return before a fugal section at the text “cum santo spiritu.” The final Amen is another […] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SSAATB | 4' | English | Multiple divisi lines in soprano and alto and unison tenor/bass create an effective textural setting of this text from Isaiah 42: “Behold my servant, whom I uphold: my chosen one in whom I delight.” SSSSAAAB unaccompanied. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Multiple divisi lines in soprano and alto and unison tenor/bass create an effective textural setting of this text from Isaiah 42: “Behold my servant, whom I uphold: my chosen one in whom I delight.” SSSSAAAB unaccompanied. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SATB | 3' | English | “Shout For Joy” was composed for the undergraduate commencement exercises of Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota in May, 2003, and is dedicated to the graduating class of that year. The text, from Psalm 33, is suitable for a range of liturgical occasions, and the work is also effective as a concert piece. The energetic opening […] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| “Shout For Joy” was composed for the undergraduate commencement exercises of Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota in May, 2003, and is dedicated to the graduating class of that year. The text, from Psalm 33, is suitable for a range of liturgical occasions, and the work is also effective as a concert piece. The energetic opening […] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SSAATTBB | 5'45" | English ⋅ Persian | “Song of Becoming” (2025) traces an arc through the four classical elements—Air, Earth, Fire, and Water—as symbols of transformation. Mostly sung in English, the score weaves in short phrases of original Persian as mantra-like refrains. Air opens in longing and awakening; Earth turns toward humility and groundedness; Fire burns with passion and surrender; Water dissolves, […] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| “Song of Becoming” (2025) traces an arc through the four classical elements—Air, Earth, Fire, and Water—as symbols of transformation. Mostly sung in English, the score weaves in short phrases of original Persian as mantra-like refrains. Air opens in longing and awakening; Earth turns toward humility and groundedness; Fire burns with passion and surrender; Water dissolves, […] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SATB | 5' 20" | English | Forget the traditional setting of “We thee kings of Orient are”! This is a much more reflective version, for choir and orchestra, given its first performance by the Nidarosdomens Guttekor in the splendid setting of Trondheim Cathedral in December 2017. They also performed the piece on their pre-Christmas tour, using just organ for accompaniment. The […] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Forget the traditional setting of “We thee kings of Orient are”! This is a much more reflective version, for choir and orchestra, given its first performance by the Nidarosdomens Guttekor in the splendid setting of Trondheim Cathedral in December 2017. They also performed the piece on their pre-Christmas tour, using just organ for accompaniment. The […] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Equal Voices ⋅ SSAA | Each round 1′30″ to 2′ (in performance) | English ⋅ Latin | All vocal groups need short, portable items in their repertoire. A round is a melody which can unfold into harmony, the prime tool of choral directors who wish to develop in singers an ability to listen to others while holding an independent line. Rounds build cohesion among singers and provide opportunities for improving ensemble, sight-reading, […] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| All vocal groups need short, portable items in their repertoire. A round is a melody which can unfold into harmony, the prime tool of choral directors who wish to develop in singers an ability to listen to others while holding an independent line. Rounds build cohesion among singers and provide opportunities for improving ensemble, sight-reading, […] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SATB | Each round 1′30″ to 2′ (in performance) | English ⋅ Latin | Most rounds in popular collections are either sober or light-hearted. Where are the truly chucklesome examples? They do exist, of course: one thinks of classics such as “Thy Jolly Red Nose” or “The Old Man from Calcutta”; even, perhaps, of the bawdy catches of Henry Purcell and John Blow. But they are rarely found between […] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Most rounds in popular collections are either sober or light-hearted. Where are the truly chucklesome examples? They do exist, of course: one thinks of classics such as “Thy Jolly Red Nose” or “The Old Man from Calcutta”; even, perhaps, of the bawdy catches of Henry Purcell and John Blow. But they are rarely found between […] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||