SING WITH THE LARK

Composed: 2003
Premiere:  Dublin Scioto A Cappella Chamber Choir, Jeff Chesser, director, March 11, 2003
Duration:  4 minutes         
Instrumentation:  SATB a cappella (with optional piano). Full orchestral accompaniment available

PROGRAM NOTES

Sing with the Lark is for a cappella choir with optional piano. An orchestral accompaniment is also available. The words of the poem and the music portray two very different emotions: a profound sadness contrasting with deep-felt joy. The poem, titled With the Lark, from Lyrics of the Hearthside, was written by African American poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar. The son of freed slaves from Kentucky, Dunbar’s poem reflects the oppression and sadness of African Americans during his lifetime in the late 1800s. These feelings of despair contrast with sections in the poem that project his underlying faith and his anticipation of a better life if only in death. In the same way, the music reflects the sadness, and also the joy of imagining a better life. 

Lyrics of the Hearthside

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
published 1913
With the Lark

Night is for sorrow and dawn is for joy,
Chasing the troubles that fret and annoy;
Darkness for sighing and daylight for song,—
Cheery and chaste the strain, heartfelt and strong.
All the night through, though I moan in the dark,
I wake in the morning to sing with the lark.

Deep in the midnight the rain whips the leaves,
Softly and sadly the wood–spirit grieves.
But when the first hue of dawn tints the sky,
I shall shake out my wings like the birds and be dry;
And though, like the rain–drops, I grieved through the dark,
I shall wake in the morning to sing with the lark.

On the high hills of heaven, some morning to be,
Where the rain shall not grieve thro’ the leaves of the tree,
There my heart will be glad for the pain I have known,
For my hand will be clasped in the hand of mine own;
And though life has been hard and death’s pathway been dark,
I shall wake in the morning to sing with the lark.