ME = Moderately Easy
M = Medium
MD = Moderately Difficult
D = Difficult
Finally On My Way To Yes (Pesha Gertler)
SSATB, piano - SEA-019-00 - $4.50/copy7 minutes - MD Commissioned by Out Loud Chorus of Ithaca, NY
Winner of Ithaca College Choral Composition Contest 2001 "Awesomely fresh music...The solo has freedom of improvisation, and comfort is found in [the] soulful harmonies toward the end." -Jan Chamberlin, Music Director, Eliot Chapel (Kirkwood, MO)
Writing this song for OutLoud Chorus was an exciting opportunity for me to integrate my contemporary music style with the high-energy close-harmony singing in which the choir excelled. The resulting work blends modal, tonal, classical and gospel into a joyful celebration of life's rough lessons. The delightful lyric, Pesha Gertler's unforgettable poem "The Healing Time," is honest and compassionate and serious and funny, concluding with the affirmation: "holy, holy."
The song features one or more soloists, who may sing the music as written or improvise in a gospel style. The colorful accompaniment, with its syncopated rhythms and metric changes, calls for a versatile and solid pianist.
To hear a recording, click here
(MP3, 1.4 MB, sung by First Unitarian Church Choir of Portland, Oregon
Mark Slegers, conductor ~ Esther Mae Jones, soprano ~ Signe Lusk, piano) A recording of this
piece is now available
on the CD:
Finally On My Way To Yes
(MP3, 1.4 MB, sung by First Unitarian Church Choir of Portland, Oregon
Mark Slegers, conductor ~ Esther Mae Jones, soprano ~ Signe Lusk, piano) A recording of this
piece is now available
on the CD:
Finally On My Way To Yes
Finally On My Way To Yes
The Healing Time
Finally on my way to yes
I bump into
all the places
where I said no
to my life
all the untended wounds
the red and purple scars
those hieroglyphs of pain
carved into my skin, my bones,
those coded messages
that send me down
the wrong street
again and again
where I find them
the old wounds
the old misdirections
and I lift them
one by one
close to my heart
and I say holy
holy.
Copyright by Pesha Gertler. Reprinted by permission.
The Healing Time
Finally on my way to yes
I bump into
all the places
where I said no
to my life
all the untended wounds
the red and purple scars
those hieroglyphs of pain
carved into my skin, my bones,
those coded messages
that send me down
the wrong street
again and again
where I find them
the old wounds
the old misdirections
and I lift them
one by one
close to my heart
and I say holy
holy.
Copyright by Pesha Gertler. Reprinted by permission.
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