Grace (2012)

Instrumentation: SATB Chorus, a cappella
Duration: 5'
Commission: The New Haven Oratorio Choir, Daniel Shaw, Artistic Director
Premiere: May 19, 2012 at the Church of the Redeemer, New Haven, CT

Program Notes

George Herbert’s poem is a prayer that begins on a personal level, with the immediate perils that face a struggling farmer, and then extends to questions concerning potential threats to the cosmos. In turn, I wanted to portray the sense of longing that comes as we await a sign of divine mercy on both the level of the individual and the level of the planet. Chant-like phrases interspersed with pregnant pauses are intended to draw our attention inward, while the ascending tonal modulations evoke a lack of certainty joined with growing intensity. As a result, the refrain “Drop from above” becomes more emphatic at the end of each stanza until it develops into a section unto itself, resounding like a mantra. While contemplating the mysteries of life, the poem’s speaker maintains a solid faith.

The text is by poet and priest George Herbert (1593-1633) from The Temple (1633), which is in the public domain.

Grace

My stock lies dead, and no increase
Doth my dull husbandrie improve:
O let thy graces without cease
Drop from above!

If still the sunne should hide his face,
Thy house would but a dungeon prove,
Thy works nights captives: O let grace
Drop from above!

The dew doth ev’ry morning fall;
And shall the dew out-strip thy dove?
The dew, for which grasse cannot call,
Drop from above.

Death is still working like a mole,
And digs my grave at each remove:
Let grace work too, and on my soul
Drop from above.

Sinne is still hammering my heart
Unto a hardnesse, void of love:
Let suppling grace, to crosse his art,
Drop from above.

O come! for thou dost know the way.
Or if to me thou wilt not move,
Remove me, where I need not say,
Drop from above.