How Can I Keep from Singing?
satb chorus & piano
How Can I Keep from Singing?
Commissioned by the Springfeld Symphony Chorus, Nikki Stoia, Director, in loving memory of Jeanne Tripp.
Music by Oliver Caplan
Poetry by Pauline T.,adapted by Doris Plenn and Pete Seeger
Instrumentation: SATB chorus & piano
Duration: 7’30”
How Can I Keep from Singing? is my reimagining of an American heirloom that has been carried from voice to voice for more than 150 years. e music you will hear tonight is entirely new; the text, however, bears the fngerprints of several hands across generations.
At its heart, this piece is about holding fast to love and hope, even in the darkest of times. Here, singing becomes an act of resistance — a way to stand in solidarity with the persecuted and to speak truth to power. For what is the alternative? Silence can so easily become surrender.
e poem frst appeared in the New York Observer in 1868, attributed to “Pauline T.” e original poem carried a more overtly religious tone. In 1869, Robert Lowry set it to a melody that would become widely beloved, appearing in hymnals and inspiring countless arrangements. Nearly a century later, during the folk revival of the 1950s, Doris Plenn and Pete Seeger reframed the poem as a civil rights anthem. ey retained Lowry’s tune but reshaped portions of the text. My version draws from the Plenn/Seeger adaptation, with the stanzas reordered; the melodies and musical language, however, are wholly my own.
Composing this work has been a bittersweet journey. For all the hope I fnd in these words, I cannot ignore their renewed urgency. In a time when democratic norms and civil rights feel increasingly fragile, this song speaks with unsettling clarity. And yet, it also insists on joy. May this music offer you a moment of breath and of life — and an enduring reminder that love is stronger than hate.
How Can I Keep from Singing?
While though the tempest loudly roars, I hear the truth, it liveth. And though the darkness 'round me close, Songs in the night it giveth.
My life goes on in endless song Above earth's lamentation.
I hear the real, though far-off hymn at hails a new creation.
rough all the tumult and the strife, I hear its music ringing. It sounds an echo in my soul. How can I keep from singing?
No storm can shake my inmost calm While to that rock I'm clinging.
Since Love is Lord of heaven and earth, How can I keep from singing?
When tyrants tremble in their fear And hear their death knell ringing, When friends rejoice both far and near, How can I keep from singing?
In prison cell and dungeon vile Our thoughts to them are winging. When friends by shame are undefled, How can I keep from singing?
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