000000_BMS_ChoirProg

Program Notes

Arr. Susan Brumfield

Bandyrowe VA Grade 3 - SSA

Susan Brumfield arranged Bandyrowe in a commission for the 2014 Junior High Women’s KYACDA All-State Chorus

Don MacDonald

Carry Me Ungraded - SA

The poetry, in the form of a chant, traces the journey of a droplet of rain and supposes that we might join on that journey. The music uses “hocketing,” where one voice fills in the rests left by another over a constantly evolving minimalist piano accompaniment. The vocal melody is repeated twice, but the underlying piano parts, casting the melody in a new light.

Michael Jothen

Dance Upon the Moon Ungraded - 2 part

A long-forgotten newsworthy event is thought to have inspired this song. The lyrics invite us to wonder, who is singing? Who wrote the letter and what does it say? Why are there tears in the singer’s eyes? While leaving the particulars to our imagination, this arrangement of a classic American folk song succeeds in capturing the mood and the spirit of life on the American railroad in the early twentieth century.

Arr. Philip E. Silvey

Nine Hundred Miles VA Grade 3 - SA

A long-forgotten newsworthy event is thought to have inspired this song. The lyrics invite us to wonder, who is singing? Who wrote the letter and what does it say? Why are there tears in the singer’s eyes? While leaving the particulars to our imagination, this arrangement of a classic American folk song succeeds in capturing the mood and the spirit of life on the American railroad in the early twentieth century.