20232198
A Soldier's Mother's Lullaby for SSAATTBB Choir
20232198
20232198
A Soldier's Mother's Lullaby for SSAATTBB Choir SSAATTBB scores gallery preview page 1
A Soldier's Mother's Lullaby for SSAATTBB Choir by Eriks Esenvalds SSAATTBB - Sheet Music

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A Soldier's Mother's Lullaby for SSAATTBB Choir 2015 by Eriks Esenvalds SSAATTBB - Sheet Music

By Eriks Esenvalds
Choir Secular Mixed Voices (SSAATTBB) (SSAATTBB choir)

SKU: PE.MB1834

2015. Composed by Eriks Esenvalds. Performance Music Ensemble; Single Titles. Musica Baltica. Living Composer. Choral Octavo. 16 pages. Musica Baltica #98-MB1834. Published by Musica Baltica (PE.MB1834).

ISBN 9790697961258.

My grandma's brother was a soldier and was lost in WWII. They didn't know where and when he died, and when his death was announced, in the family there were desperate cries like those described so powerfully by Wilfred Owen in his Anthem for doomed youth. But there also were softly whispered prayers like those depicted in A soldier's mother's lullaby by Jack Whalen. In this setting, commissioned by Kent Hatterberg for the University of Louisville Cardinal Singers, I wanted to use Owen's graphic lyrics--where soldiers 'die as cattle'--contrasted with something gentle, dear and very personal. As I kept thinking about what that might be, in the Library of Congress I finally found an old manuscript from 1918 of A soldier's mother's lullaby--a song by Peter C Caporossi with lyrics by Jack Whalen. That was it! The second half of Jack's poem brought me to tears--a simple, fragile story about the mother of a soldier, humming her lullaby and dreaming of the days long ago when her son was sleeping in his cradle. I imagined the voices of the mother and the soldier echoing each other from thousands of miles away. The next lyrics, 'And as the wind blows' inspired me to paint the flow of time, years, and memories in music for double chorus, in constantly shifting, overlapping harmony. At the very end of the song I gradually switched the perspective from their home to a picture or imagined place in heaven where millions of such lullabies meet. from notes by Eriks Ešenvalds © 2020.

Ratings + Reviews

Based on 1 Reviews
January 22, 2019
A Soldier's Mother's Lullaby
This is, quite simply, my favorite work by a living composer right now. Written in a through-composed two-part form, this is an extremely moving piece. The first section features music with extraverted intensity to a setting of a poem by Wilfred Owen. The second section features music with introverted intensity to a setting of a poem by Jack Whalen. Highly recommended.