SATB and Piano (4:00)
Date of composition: 2025
in your company
Commissioned by Dr. Francis Cathlina for the University of Memphis University Singers’ performance at the 2026 Southern ACDA
In 1992, American author Gary Chapman published a book entitled The Five Love Languages which identified five ways people express and receive love. These include words of affirmation, physical touch, acts of service, gifts, and quality time. I love talking about love languages because we all communicate love in different way, along with giving and receiving it. One’s “love language” can explain a lot about someone and how they interact with those around them. In 2025, Dr. Francis Cathlina from the University of Memphis approached me to write a piece about “quality time” to open the University of Memphis University Singers’s upcoming 2026 Southern ACDA Conference performance.
For me, quality time is about sharing moments of stillness and calm within a busy world with someone you feel comfortable with. I struggled with the “expectation” of composing a piece full of life and energy that is normally associated with a concert opener for a conference performance, but after working with Audrey Burchfield (a dear friend that I have collaborated with on multiple occasions such as “In Between,” “She Walks in Beauty,” and “This Will Remain”), we wrote something that I believe captures the joy, stillness, and comfort that is found in sharing quality time with someone you love.
in your company
I see you
Here with me,
With weary eyes
Like a child fighting sleep,
Find your rest.
Come, lay your head on my shoulder,
Come, lay your burdens down.
The world will go on without us,
Time will pass,
But for a moment,
Just for a moment,
Stay with me.
The world has left me breathless and bruised,
But in your company, I find my peace.
So stay with me,
A moment longer,
Just a moment longer,
And another after that,
Until all that is left are moments
Spent, no longer alone.
-Audrey Burchfield
(b. 1998)