Dr. Matthew Emery (b.1991) is a Canadian composer whose music has been performed in twenty-nine countries. He currently teaches at Carleton University, the University of Toronto, and Western University

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SATB (cp1569) or TTBB (cp1570) and Piano

Marjorie Pickthall, poet

4 min duration

Cypress Publishing

Commissioned by the Cantabile Choirs of Kingston: “The beautiful and life affirming poem by Marjorie Pickthall (Canadian) is given a classy and poignant setting in the inimitable Emery style.”

Soundcloud Audio

kindheartttbb

Just to live under green leaves and see them

Just to lie under low stars and watch them wane

a kind heart

Just to sleep by a kind heart

and know it loving – again

Just to live, just to lie

just to sleep, just to live

just to wake, just to walk

a kind heart

Just to wake on a sunny day

and the wind blowing

and know it loving – again

Just to live, just to lie

just to sleep, just to wake

a kind heart

Just to walk on a bare road

in the bright rain, or a sunny day

under low stars

and know it loving – again

Just to walk, just to wake

just to sleep, just to lie

just to live, just to wake, just to walk

a kind heart

Just to lie, just to wake

just to walk, just to live

These, O these,

and the night moon showing again

a kind heart – again.

Purchase (SATB and/or TTBB accompanied)

Themes; love, loss, longing, kindness, nature, heart, love, healing, moving on, peace, remembrance

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SATB a cappella

2.5 min each, 5 min total

Text: Marjorie Pickthall

E.C. Schirmer PURCHASE NOW

Love: No 1.3533

In Whom All Things: No 1. 3534

  1. Love : Pax Christi Recording
  2. In Whom All Things Are : Pax Christi Recording

Commissioned by Pax Christi Chorale, Stephanie Martin, dir.

premiere audio (excerpt):

 

 

Texts;

LOVE said to the wind, Be still; To time, Be merciful;
To life, Be sufficient.
But these answered,
Shall breath command breath, Or the relentless the relentless, Or the shadow, the shadow?

 

 

LOVE, in whom all things are, Shadow and light, Make of my grief a star Crowning his night. Love, in whom all things nest, Tired of the way,
Make of my pains a rest Healing his day.
Love, in whom all things hide, Far though they roam Make my life’s loss the tide Bearing him home

in whom all things updated cover

 

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SSATB a cappella

4 min

Text: Marjorie Pickthall

self published

Commissioned by the Johnson State College Choirs. Bethany L. Plissey, Director.

audio: 

OVER the field where the grass is cool, (Follow the road who must !)
With a song for the beech and the brown pool, And the noiseless tread in the dust,
With a laugh for the lazy hours that go, And the folk who pass us by.
(The trees they grow so broad, so low, They shut me from the sky.)

Here be strawberries wild and sweet, (Follow the road who may !)
And here’s a rest for a bairn’s feet And a kiss at the close o’ day.
And here’s a cloud from the shining sea Like a white moth in the night. (On the edge o’ the barley field, may be The stars would show more bright.)

Cut me a flute where the reeds are brown. (Follow the road who will !)
O, I’ll dress you fair in a green gown
And a cloak that is finer still.
Your sleeves shall be o’ the fairies’ lawn, Your shoon as red as the rose.
(Do you think that the wind which wakes at dawn Will bring us a breath o’ the snows ?)

O, the world’s wide, and the world is long. (Follow the road who may !)
And here’s a lilt of the wild song
The Romany pipers play.
And ‘Mine,’ it sings, ‘is the moon’s shield, And the cloak o’ the cloud is mine.’ (Do you think that the lowland clover field Is sweet as the upland pine ?)

Program note;

The Hillman’s Lass, speaks to many themes. Pickthall’s narrative poem suggests ideas of love, longing and an endless road which seems to sparkle and come alive as it twists through beech forests, fields of cool grass and shining seas and stars.

The folk-like story is set musically with a common melodic idea, heard throughout the song in all voices, it is somewhat extroverted and ‘upbeat’. This ‘simple’ melody is juxtaposed with a slower, more mediative or introverted sections. These inward expressions on the texts relating to following the ‘road’ are moments for reflection and calmness.

I see the two sides of the piece a narrative of the world; a mix of loud and soft, busy and slow. We reach and explore moving down our own path in life. We are lead down roads, valleys, mountains, fields and seas. We also question our path and future, we are unsure if this path we are on is the right one. We search for meaning and connections, this is musically referenced at the end of the work with the canon idea accompanied by a drone, which then ends the song calling back to the opening text and music. The song ends in a lullaby like rocking motion, as if nature has calmed our world into a compassionate resonating space, whole.

Matthew Emery, July 2016, Toronto.

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SATB a cappella

4 min

Text: Marjorie Pickthall

Boosey & Hawkes 2018

Commissioned by the Woodstock Fanshawe Wingers, Shawn Grenke director.

Premiere audio, copyright WFS.

YOUTUBE VIDEO

 

O keep the world forever at the dawn,
Yet, keeping so, let nothing lifeless seem,
But hushed, as if the miracle of morn
Were trembling in its dream.
Some shadowy moth may pass with drowsy flight
And fade before the sight,
While in the unlightened darkness of the wall
The chirping crickets call;
From forest pools where fragrant lilies are
A breath shall pass afar,
And o’er the crested pine shall hang one star.

PURCHASE

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SATB a cappella

5 min

Text: Marjorie Pickthall

Boosey & Hawkes 2018

PURCHASE

Commissioned by THAT CHOIR 2017. Premiered May 2017, Toronto.

premiere audio – copyright That Choir, Craig Pike.

O, fly away on the wings of love,

While love in our hearts shall be.

O, why do you turn to the wild sky,

Away from the trees and me?

O, when I fly, I’ll fly like the white sea dove,

To the heart of the wide grey sea.

YouTube Video

 

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Two-Part Chorus of Mixed or Equal Voices (divisi) and Piano

4 min.

Text by Frederick Shea Jesson

E.C. Schirmer 2017 No. 1.3491

VIDEO Performance by the 2018 Greater Phoenix Women’s Honour Choir

Commissioned by the ORIANA Women’s Choir of Toronto.

premiere audio:

 

view score:

PROGRAM NOTE

You Have Made Me, Earth features long melodic lines which weave and soar, mingle and intertwine, representing life’s flowing pulse.

—Matthew Emery

TEXT

Earth, you have made me
Of smoke and the flying Of strong-winged birds.

And the freedom of wind, With the freedom of waves,
Has entered into my being.

From dust of a moth-wing You have made me, Earth.

Purchase:

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SATB a cappella

Arrangement, original melody: E. Gagnon (in Public Domain)

7 min total duration

-J’ai cueilli la belle rose, 2 min purchase

– En roulant ma boule roulant, 2 min purchase

– Petit rocher,  3 min purchase

Pavane Publishing 2018

Commissioned and premiered by the Cantabile Chamber Singers (Toronto) Oct. 2016.

AUDIO RECORDINGS HERE

Errors in the score for Petit Rocher:

m.8 = cette

m.13 = En-ten-dez

m.18= bientôt

m.29 = à

m.32 = j’a

m.36 = heu-reux

m.44 = soprano, place the “ne” of “donne” on beat 2 of mm 44.

m.47 = vous

 

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SSAA accompanied
Text: James Thomson
Duration: 3.5 min
Publisher: Santa Barbara Music Publishing

Commissioned by the Amabile Youth Singers, and Prima of London Ontario, Canada.

from the publisher: “The composer cleverly weaves the melody in and out of the four parts making this a joy to sing, and fascinating to hear. The left hand of the piano maintains the pulse, thereby anchoring this delightful piece.”

Audio:

Let my voice ring out and over the earth,
Through all the grief and strife,
With a golden joy in a silver mirth:
I give thanks for Life!

Let my voice swell out through the great abyss
To the azure dome above,
With a chord of faith in the harp of bliss:
I give thanks for Love!

Let my voice thrill out beneath and above,
The whole world through:
O my Love and Life,
O my Life and Love,
I give thanks for you!

James Thomson (1834-1882) was a Scottish Victorian poet. In 1862 he moved to London, where he supported himself as a clerk while writing essays, poems, and stories, many of them published in Bradlaugh’s National Reformer, a worker’s weekly. The publication of a volume of Thomson’s poetry, The City of Dreadful Night and Other Poems (1880), received favourable critical attention.

Purchase / See the score: 

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SATB a cappella

2 min 20 seconds

Henry Alline

Plangere Editions

2nd place in the Atlantic Voices Choral Composition Competition 2013

Audio from premiere:

O for the spirit of the Dove,
  To bow this heart of mine! 
Lord let my soul enjoy thy love, 
  And find a peace divine.

O for the meekness of the Lamb, 
  To walk with thee, my God! 
Then should I feel thy lovely name, 
  And feed upon thy word.

Jesus, I long to love thee more, 
  And life divine pursue;
I love thy worship, name adore,
  In songs forever new.
Purchase
Themes: nature, love, unity, peace, home, longing, sacred,

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SATB a cappella

2 min

Morris Rosenfeld

Plangere Editions

audio mock up: contact if you would like to premiere this motet!

I LIFT mine eyes against the sky,

The clouds are weeping, so am I;

I lift mine eyes again on high,

The sun is smiling, so am I.

Why do I smile? Why do I weep?

I do not know; it lies too deep.
I hear the winds of autumn sigh,

They break my heart, they make me cry;

I hear the birds of lovely spring,

My hopes revive, I help them sing.

Why do I sing? Why do I cry?

It lies so deep, I know not why.

Purchase (email publisher)

Themes: nature, love, sacred, secular, chant