- An Echoing Song (2003) SATB, organ 4'
- Text: Reiner Maria Rilke, from Stundenbuch I, trans. DET
- Commissioned by the American Composers Forum through the Faith Partners Program.
- Premiere—2003, by the Westminster Presbyterian Church Sanctuary Choir, Jere Lantz, conductor, Minneapolis, MN.
Program Note
The poems of Rainer Maria Rilke's Stundenbuch (The Book of Hours) speak of a close personal relationship between soul and deity, etched with bold images from the physical world. I found the expanding gyre of Rilke's poem emblematic of the potential of the individual, and thus of our stewardship. Our ever-widening rings have a center, but are our actions prophetic, reactive, or merely routine? Echoing is also a complement to my anthem, A Joyful Symphony (which also takes its title from its last line), but while Joyful is affirming and celebratory, Echoing raises only questions.
Text
Ich lebe mein Leben in wachsenden Ringen,
die sich über die Dinge ziehn.
Ich werde den letzten vielleicht nicht vollbringen,
aber versuchen will ich ihn.
Ich kreise um Gott, um den uralten Turm,
und ich kreise jahrtausendelang;
und ich weiß noch nicht: bin ich ein Falke, ein Sturm
oder ein großer Gesang.
Translation
I live my life in ever-widening rings,
which spread over earth and sky.
I may not see the last full round,
But I will try, yes, I will try.
I circle God, the primordial tower
in orbits ages long.
And yet still I wonder, I wonder: what am I?
a falcon, a storm, or an echoing song?