Seafarer Press | Elizabeth Alexander, Works: Fighting Over What We Believe

LEVEL E = Easy
ME = Moderately Easy
M = Medium
MD = Moderately Difficult
D = Difficult

Adult Women Men Youth Children by theme/style by difficulty

Fighting Over What We Believe (Lyric by the composer)

SAB youth choir, SATB adult choir and piano - SEA-099-00 - $3.25/copy
SATB, 5-6 soloists and piano - SEA-099-01 - NOT YET AVAILABLE FOR SALE
5 minutes - M Commissioned by Mayflower United Church of Christ (Minneapolis), in honor of the 30th Anniversary of its music leaders: Nancy Grundahl, Dana Blanck and Dorothy Williams.

A bold and compassionate meditation on conflict, communication and compromise, served up with a touch of hip-hop cadence, a taste of American folk music nuance, and the solid choral and piano writing that the composer is known for. This song's innovative formal structure includes sections of dialogue between the youth and adult choirs, reflecting the dynamic relationship necessary for all difficult, positive and important conversations.

Composer Note: "This commission from Mayflower United Church of Christ came with an exciting and irresitable mission: To compose a piece which had social justice at its core, and to score it for combined youth and adult choirs. The music directors knew me and my work already, so they had to suspect that this prospect would have me chomping at the bit. And because I already knew something about Mayflower's passion and commitment to unflinching dialogue and bold actions, I knew the church would welcome the hard edges and difficult questions that I poured into this song."

Fighting Over What We Believe (youth choir and adult choir) - Score

Fighting Over What We Believe (adult choir and soloists) - Score

Fighting Over What We Believe Elizabeth Alexander
Talking left, talking right, talking far into the night,
Splitting hairs, splitting up, splitting off,
Less and more, rich and poor, what to address, what to ignore,
What are we really fighting for?
Persuade, coerce,
Convene, disperse,
Accept or curse?
Deny, confess,
Condemn or bless?
Who lives? Who dies?
My truth, your lies.

Bring in, shut out, what's that all about?
Who gives out retribution and grace?
What to keep, what to spend,
What to give and what to lend?
Some have not, some have a lot.
Can we learn to share the things we've got?

I see us fighting over what we believe, how to love and how to pray.
We begin with hope and resolve and dreams, and end up fighting over what we believe.
I see us fighting over what we believe, leaving spirits poor and lonely.
I want to use my fighting spirit in a different way instead of fighting over what we believe.

I want to wrestle with the angel ‘til the light of dawn,
And struggle with my need for pride.
I want to take on my tendency to turn my head,
And grapple with why it feels so hard to gently lay our differences aside.

(Day, night, wrong, right, no end in sight.)

ADULTS: We all believe in justice... / YOUTH: Let's talk about what that looks like.
ADULTS: And we believe in compassion... / YOUTH: Let's look at what that really means.
ALL: We believe in the holy work of listening, to every voice.
Let's start our conversation there...

Instead of fighting over what we believe. It wears us down and wears us out.
We have eyes to see, we have ears to hear, we have hands that long to give and receive.
I see us fighting over what we believe, leaving spirits poor and lonely.
I want to use my fighting spirit in a different way instead of fighting over what we believe.

(Divide, unite, exclude, invite, day, night, wrong, right, no end in sight.)

We all believe in justice.

Let's talk about what that looks like.
Copyright 2011 by Elizabeth Alexander. All rights reserved.

Fighting Over What We Believe (youth choir and adult choir) - Score Scorch was designed by the folks who built Sibelius notation software, as a simple way to allow Sibelius scores to become webpages. Despite its slightly ominous name, Scorch is free, is not excessively large (approx. 1 MB), and does not do anything demonic like put you on a mailing list or affect other computer programs. - E.A.

If you can't see the score after the file finishes loading, click here to download the Scorch plug-in.

Fighting Over What We Believe (adult choir and soloists) - Score Scorch was designed by the folks who built Sibelius notation software, as a simple way to allow Sibelius scores to become webpages. Despite its slightly ominous name, Scorch is free, is not excessively large (approx. 1 MB), and does not do anything demonic like put you on a mailing list or affect other computer programs. - E.A.

If you can't see the score after the file finishes loading, click here to download the Scorch plug-in.

Seafarer Press | Elizabeth Alexander, composer

Fighting Over What We Believe (Lyric by the composer)