SATB divisi, a cappella (4:00)
Date of composition: 2025
The Gift to Sing
Winner of the Atlanta Master Chorale's Choral Composition Competition
When I first read James Weldon Johnson’s “The Gift to Sing,” I was struck by its quiet power and timeless resonance. Even in life’s most difficult moments, music can lift the spirit, offer clarity, and rekindle hope, and that has certainly been true in my life.
Johnson’s words are both intimate and expansive, and this setting begins with a soloist to capture the personal expression of this text. As the poem unfolds, the music grows more expansive and open as sweet dissonances and soaring melodic lines capture the triumphant nature of this text.
In composing this work, my hope was to honor Johnson’s spirit while creating space for singers and listeners alike to reflect on the sacred connection between music and the human soul. “The Gift to Sing” reminds us that in our most human moments, especially in sorrow, we are not alone. We have song, and in song, we find spirit.
This composition was named the winner of the Atlanta Master Chorale's Choral Composition Competition and will be premiered during AMC’s 26-27 season.
The Gift to Sing
Sometimes the mist overhangs my path,
And blackening clouds about me cling;
But, oh, I have a magic way
To turn the gloom to cheerful day—
I softly sing.
And if the way grows darker still,
Shadowed by Sorrow’s somber wing,
With glad defiance in my throat,
I pierce the darkness with a note,
And sing, and sing.
I brood not over the broken past,
Nor dread whatever time may bring;
No nights are dark, no days are long,
While in my heart there swells a song,
And I can sing.
- James Weldon Johnson
(1871-1938)