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| Be Joyful | |
| Text Author: | David of Wales (ca. 500 - 589) |
| Date Completed: | June 19, 2009 |
| Duration: | about 4 minutes |
| Instrumentation: | SATB chorus optional solo violin and cello Organ |
| Comments: | Commissioned for the Calvary Episcopal Church Choir (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), its director, Alan Lewis, and the Music and Architecture Series by James P. Cassaro, to whom it is dedicated |
| Program Notes: | Be Joyful I decided to set the last recorded words of David of Wales (c. 500-589), which are part of the last sermon he gave before his death around 589 AD. 'Be joyful, and keep your faith and your creed. Do the little things that you have seen me do and heard about. I will walk the path that our fathers have trod before us.' The phrase Do the little things in life is often used in Wales to this day, and in it I find an echo of some aspects of his personality – his great care of others and stewardship of his church and community, his rule of vegetarianism and that monks should drink only water. Above all the text conveys with brotherly warmth a feeling of purpose and destiny in what otherwise must have been an uncertain, precarious existence. I have tried to set the words as clearly as possible with a music that forms a cradling net around them. Each line of music (sung or played) follows its own inner logic while at the same time forming a surrounding harmony in which I have tried to reflect a sense of open-eyed wonder at his approaching transition into the afterlife. Roger Zahab |