A Continuous Harmony
words by Wendell Berry and the singers of the Grand Rapids Youth Chorus
music by Sean Ivory for choir, piano, cello and djembe
A Continuous Harmony
The title “A Continuous Harmony” is borrowed from a book of essays by Wendell Berry, who in turn borrowed it from an account by Thomas F. Hornbein on his travels in the Himalayas. ”It seemed to me,” Hornbein wrote, ”that here man lived in continuous harmony with the land, as much as briefly a part of it as all its other occupants.” Wendell Berry has written prolifically about how we treat our environment, and there is a music which subtly lives through that writing, especially his poetry. Can we live in harmony with our environment? Can we live in harmony with each other? There is music in nature, in the trees and in the stars, and that music is also in us. The more we sing together, the tighter our bonds become. To quote a song near and dear to the Grand Rapids Youth Choruses: “People who make music together cannot be enemies - at least while the music lasts.” (Thank you, Paul Hindemith!)
“Music Keeps Us Here,” the final piece in this set, has existed since 2015. At the time I wrote it, I was trying to convey the idea that music holds us together - as communities, as schools, as ensembles. For many young people, being part of a music program is why they love going to school. I firmly believe that music, specifically ensemble music, is one of the last vestiges of human interaction and collaboration with the intent of creating something of beauty. Our individual contributions to the group create something exponentially greater than the sum of the parts. Music keeps us “here” - in relationship with others, everyone an integral part of the community, grounded in the knowledge that we are part of each other, with music as the unifying force.
I used “Music Keeps Us Here” as the DNA for the first four movements. Motifs and melodies, piano patterns etc. are borrowed to construct the whole suite.
I. The Dark Around Us
A gathering song. We come in from the dark to create light. We are one of another, a community, rejoicing mind and eye. We know each other, and are known. Through us, all the earth shall sing.
II. The Seed is in the Ground
Creation takes time. Breath. Patience. Creating a piece of music requires both closeness and distance. Ideas happen at random times - on walks, in dreams… Creating a performance takes time, breath, and patience… We plant, we tend, we prune, we weed, and we walk away…. we come back, week after week, until the harvest. Sometimes we see more when we are not looking directly. Much of the work happens in the dark, and we must let it be… growth is always happening!
III. Tune Our Hearts to Joy
Members of the choir voice their love for music.
IV. Bird Song
We walk through the forest and hear birds, with whom we share a kinship through song. Quiet prepares our spirits to receive the songs of birds, the songs of humanity. Listen.
V. Music Keeps Us Here
We form circles together. The circle of our family, of our community, of our choir. The circles sometimes merge, are sometimes separate. We form circles throughout time, throughout the seasons and the years. We come and go, but the music never stops. We are joined through music, and music keeps us here. Music gives us a reason to return.
TEXTS
I. The Dark Around Us
The dark around us, come, Let us meet here together, Members one of another, Here in our holy room,
Here on our little floor, Here in the daylit sky, Rejoicing mind and eye, Rejoining known and knower,
Light, leaf, foot, hand, and wing, Such order as we know, One household, high and low, And all the earth shall sing.
II. The Seed is in the Ground
The seed is in the ground. Now may we rest in hope While darkness does its work.
III. Tune our hearts to joy!
Music, the sole thing that keeps the world spinningIt tunes our hearts to joy. Music brings kindness to the world And unites us to form a beautiful choir.
Tune our hearts to joy!
The sound of birds flying through the trees, The hug of a loved one after a long day, The spreading of joy as laughter is found, And the heart that keeps us living together In harmony.
Music allows you to travel in time, To stop time, Release time, And feel time.
The fiery bellows burning in my heart.
Music is our soul, A pathway towards home. Our lyrics write our story And illustrate the beauty that we leave behind On this earth.
My family’s legacy. Only music keeps us here.
- Clara Becksvoort, Sarah Krueger, Tillie Earley, Logan Saganski, Maddie Chapman, Meredith Smith, Wendell Berry
IV. Bird Song
Best of any song is bird song in the quiet, but first you must have the quiet.
V. Song. For Guy Davenport
Within the circles of our lives we dance the circles of the years, we dance the circles of the seasons within the circles of the years, the cycles of the moon
within the circles of the seasons, the circles of our reasons within the cycles of the moon.
Again, again, we come and go, changed, changing. Hands join, unjoin in love and fear, grief and joy. The circles turn, each giving into each, into all. Only music keeps us here,
each by all the others held. In the hold of hands and eyes we turn in pairs, that joining join each to all again.
And then we turn aside, alone out of the sunlight gone
into the darker circles of return.
Wendell Berry
I. The Dark Around Us
leaf, foot, hand
leaf, foot,
Light, leaf, foot, hand
and wing,
and wing,
and wing,
and wing,
and wing,
Light, leaf, foot, hand
Light, leaf, foot, hand
Light, leaf, foot, hand
Light, leaf, foot, hand
such or der as we know,
Light, leaf, foot, hand
Light, leaf, foot, hand
One house hold
One house hold
And
And
And
And
And
II. The Seed is in the Ground
arpeggiate
GRYC Singers, Wendell Berry
Sean Ivory
Cello
Pno.
Wendell Berry
IV. Bird Song
pedal liberally throughout... create a reverberant wash
green-throated warbler
white-throated sparrow
Sean Ivory
Pno.
Pno.
Wendell Berry
Commemorating
V. Music Keeps Us Here
& & V ? & ?
& V ? & ?
& & V ? ? ?
& V ? & ?
& ? & & V ? ?
& ? & & V ? B & ?
The Dark Around Us
The Dark Around Us
cresc.
The Seed is in the Ground
GRYC Singers, Wendell Berry
Tune Our Hearts to Joy
Sean Ivory