Eileen Berry’s text for this reflective and expressive work provides a rich metaphor for healing as it suggests that difficulty and sorrow can be used redemptively in our lives. At the point in the text where the phrase “a frail bell posed a chime” is heard, the unmetered voices evoke the sound of a wind chime, building to a forte, then gradually diminishing to a quiet conclusion. With piano, wind chimes and finger cymbal. Commissioned for the 2012 North Carolina MEA Middle School Honors Choir.
This version for SATB (limited bass range for developing voices). Also available in SSAA voicing.
TEXT:
For so long wind was all I heard,
When I heard anything at all.
Winter held its silent spell.
Nothing stirred.
Today when I kept still a time
Sounds began small.
Quiet on wind, a frail bell
Posed a chime.
How often now I hear them peal.
Liquid silver notes fall.
A never-ceasing song to tell
How things heal.
-Eileen Berry (2012)
Instrumentation: Piano, Percussion