We Are the Music Makers
4-Part - Digital Sheet Music

SKU: A0.829315

"We Are the Music Makers" resulted from a commission by the choir alumni of Shawnee Mission South High School, Overland Park, Kansas, for their 40th anniversary concert, October 20, 2007. Once every five years, the choir alumni of the school gather for a week of reunion and rehearsals under the direction of founding choir director, Don Donaldson. The current director at that time, Dustin Cates, knew me from nine years before when I had accompanied him in his senior year of high school, and our paths had crossed many times since--in church, school, and community theatre events. So he approached me about the commission, with the following stipulations: the work needed to be for festival choir with piano accompaniment, with a secular text on the subject of how music changes lives, in a musical style that was "sophisticated."

Going to the computer, I began searching for literature on the subject of music. After much deliberation I settled on "Ode" by Arthur O'Shaughnessy, from his poetry collection, Music and Moonlight, published in 1874. But with 72 lines of text, it was too long for a single choral piece. So I carefully pared it down, while also moving some lines around and altering a few words to make the total lyric better suit my purposes. I'm not sure exactly what O'Shaughnessy had in mind when he wrote the poem, but with some light editing it seemed to me to illustrate the optimism of those brave pioneers who built our nation in the early days. For example, the line "they had a vision amazing of the goodly house they are raising" reminded me of the hopefulness expressed in Katherine Bates' "thine alabaster cities gleam above the fruited plains." The poem seemed to celebrate optimism, bravery, and hard work--all springing from the "dreamers of dreams" who envisioned a country such as ours.

Next, I had to determine the general musical style. It occurred to me that the unique, picturesque text required an angular, rhythmic melody to serve as its vehicle. Taking my inspiration from the iconic American composer, Leonard Bernstein, I experimented with various motifs until I settled into a pattern. Rhythmically, I tried to stay as close as possible to the spoken accents of the text. In fact, as a rather fun exercise you might have half of the choir read the lyrics as you would read a poem, while the other half watches the music go by. I think you'll find that the spoken cadence of the text is captured very closely by the notated rhythms (except for the opening and closing melismas, of course).

One observation about the placement of the modulation: when I was young I heard a minister say that in the Bible, when we read the word "therefore", the scripture is transitioning into something very important, so we should take a closer look to see what it is there for. In a related vein, I would submit that in a lyric, when you have the word "therefore," it's an ideal spot for a modulation since you are transitioning into a closing summary! (That's probably not something you've learned in college, because only years of experience can give you that kind of insight :-) You're welcome, no charge.

After completing the choral parts, I again channeled my inner Bernstein and crafted the piano accompaniment, endeavoring to make it fit the overall style and support the choral parts without overpowering them-al.