National Endowment for the Arts

and 

Chorus America

cchoral musi horal musicc

National Endowment for the Arts

and 

Chorus America

choral music
American Masterpieces: Choral Music

This publication was produced by the National Endowment for the Arts and Chorus America. 

September 2006

Production Credits

Philip Brunelle, Executive Editor

Don Ball, Publication Manager

Katryn Conlin, Designer

Catherine Davies, Editor

Kara Fairchild, Image Researcher

Rex Levang, Recording Researcher

Bill Parker, Author

National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new 

and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education. Established by 

Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Endowment is the nation’s largest 

annual funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases. 

Chorus America

Founded in 1977, Chorus America serves the spectrum of professional, volunteer, children/youth, and 

symphony/opera choruses. To accomplish its mission of strengthening choruses and increasing appreciation of 

choral music so that more people are enriched by its beauty and power, Chorus America provides information, 

publications, conferences, consulting, training programs, surveys, networking, and awards to support choruses 

throughout North America. 

Chorus America Ann Meier Baker, President and CEO

1156 15th Street N.W., Suite 310 Robin Perry Allen, Director of Communications

Washington, D.C. 20005

202-331-7577

www.chorusamerica.org

National Endowment for the Arts

1100 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20506-0001

202-682-5400

www.arts.gov

Dana Gioia, Chairman

Wayne Brown, Director of Music and Opera

Felicia K. Knight, Director of Communications

Court Burns, Music Specialist

Victoria Hutter, Communications Specialist

Don Ball, Publications Manager
Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 5

Dana Gioia, Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts

Preface ........................................................................................................................................... 6

Philip Brunelle, Artistic Director, American Masterpieces: Choral Music

American Masterpieces: Choral Music................................................................................... 7

Choral Music in America........................................................................................................... 8

Composer Profiles

Dominick Argento ....................................................................................................11

Samuel Barber............................................................................................................12

Leonard Bernstein.....................................................................................................13

William Billings.........................................................................................................14

William Bolcom.........................................................................................................15

Harry T. Burleigh......................................................................................................16

Chen Yi.......................................................................................................................17

Aaron Copland..........................................................................................................18

Brent Michael Davids...............................................................................................19

William Dawson .......................................................................................................20

R. Nathaniel Dett......................................................................................................21

Stephen Foster...........................................................................................................22

Jennifer Higdon.........................................................................................................23

Moses Hogan.............................................................................................................24

Charles Ives................................................................................................................25

Aaron Jay Kernis .......................................................................................................26

Libby Larsen ..............................................................................................................27

Morten Lauridsen .....................................................................................................28

Norman Luboff .........................................................................................................29

Gian Carlo Menotti...................................................................................................30

Alice Parker & Robert Shaw ...................................................................................31

Stephen Paulus..........................................................................................................32

Ned Rorem.................................................................................................................33

William Schuman .....................................................................................................34

Conrad Susa...............................................................................................................35

Randall Thompson ...................................................................................................36

Virgil Thomson .........................................................................................................37

Eric Whitacre.............................................................................................................38

Image Credits..............................................................................................................................39

Table of Contents
4 
More people in America sing in choruses than participate in any other 

performing art—from church choirs to children’s choruses, from symphonic 

chorales to chamber singers. Their repertoire includes everything from gospel music 

and Broadway tunes to medieval plainchant and the symphonic classics. The National 

Endowment for the Arts wants to celebrate this extraordinary artistic legacy with 

audiences familiar and unfamiliar with its richness.

The NEA’s American Masterpieces: Choral Music initiative is designed to 

celebrate our national musical heritage by highlighting significant American choral 

composers and their works of the past 250 years. It is part of the larger National 

Endowment for the Arts program, American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of 

Artistic Genius. 

The choral component was launched in Washington, D.C. on June 11, 2006 

with a rousing concert from a range of ensembles gathered under the auspices of 

Chorus America and directed by Philip Brunelle, founder and artistic director of 

VocalEssence. Mr. Brunelle also serves as artistic director of the initiative and 

I applaud his guidance.

From September 2006 through June 2007, seven exemplary organizations are 

producing regional choral festivals to bring beautifully blended voices to all corners of 

the country. From Seattle to Statesboro, audiences have the opportunity to enjoy this 

fundamental part of their artistic and cultural heritage. 

In addition to stirring concerts, American Masterpieces: Choral Music brings 

educational and choral workshops to its locations. Not only do we want more 

Americans to hear this great music, we want to cultivate a love and appreciation 

of it for future generations.

American Masterpieces presents choral music at its finest. We hope you enjoy this 

concert and many more to come.

Dana Gioia

Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts

Introduction

5
Gathering to sing has been a tradition in the United States since earliest times. 

Composers from the Revolutionary War times to the present day inspire us 

with their ability to capture emotions in song, whether their music is performed by 

a professional ensemble, children’s choir, church or synagogue choir, male or female 

ensemble, community chorus, or symphonic choir. Certain men and women stand 

out as composers of particular note for their significant and lasting contributions to 

our American choral heritage—not only through original compositions, but also by 

preserving spirituals and folk songs in what have become “standard” arrangements. 

Of the various musical arts, singing is unique because it combines notes with 

words—poetry, scripture, folk tales, or prose from anywhere and everywhere. The 

composers in this compilation represent some of the finest musicians devoted to the 

choral art; they were chosen for their noted affinity for writing for voices coupled 

with their masterful sense of textual relationship to the music they compose. 

There are, of course, thousands of American choral composers down through 

history, and this roster of 29 composers represents an important introduction to 

the richness and diversity of American choral music. Similarly, the works and 

recordings listed for each composer are not meant to be exhaustive. It is hoped that 

choral conductors, singers, and enthusiasts will use this publication as a resource for 

concert programming or personal enjoyment, and as a springboard for discovering the 

full and glorious range of American choral music. 

It has been a pleasure to be involved in a project with such marvelous potential for 

musicians everywhere.

Philip Brunelle

Artistic Director, American Masterpieces: Choral Music

Artistic Director and Founder, VocalEssence

Preface

6
7

Celebrating some of our country’s best artistic work with as many people in as many communities 

as possible is the goal of American Masterpieces: 

Three Centuries of Artistic Genius, a project of the 

National Endowment for the Arts. The NEA created 

American Masterpieces to better acquaint Americans 

with exemplary works from the nation’s artistic 

heritage. Following a pilot phase in 2004, the first 

American Masterpieces grants were awarded in 2005 

for museums and visual arts projects.

The following year, American Masterpieces expanded 

to include dance, literature (through the NEA’s the Big 

Read program), musical theater, and choral projects. 

The choral component features the first American 

Masterpieces grants to highlight music.

Those first grants were made to the seven organizations listed below and support regional choral festivals 

and tours. At least half of the programming will focus 

on the work of the American composers listed in this 

publication. All performances will be directed by 

experienced choral directors leading renowned 

choruses. In addition to performances, each engagement includes master classes, workshops for choral 

directors, composer-in-residence programs, and other 

activities. A second round of choral music grants 

will be awarded in 2007.

The participating choruses and their partner 

organizations are: 

Brazeal Dennard Chorale of Detroit, Michigan, will 

present a choral festival in Detroit, Ann Arbor, and 

Brighton, Michigan. Partnering choruses are Our Own 

Thing Chorale in Ann Arbor and Livingston County 

Chorale in Brighton. 

Cantus of Minneapolis, Minnesota, will present a choral 

festival in several northern Minnesota communities—

Duluth, Virginia, Hibbing, and Grand Rapids—as well 

as in Minneapolis. VocalEssence of Minneapolis will 

partner with Cantus. 

Conspirare of Austin, Texas, will present a choral 

festival in Austin with six collaborating choruses, 

including University of Texas, Austin choir; Texas State 

University at San Marcos choir; Conspirare Children’s 

Choir; and the following high school choirs: Judson 

High School from Converse, Faith Family Academy 

from Dallas, and Stephen’s School from Austin. 

Georgia Southern University Research and Service 

Foundation of Statesboro, Georgia, will present a 

choral festival focusing on spirituals and will partner 

with Boston Camerata and the Fisk University Jubilee 

Singers from Nashville, Tennessee. 

The Providence Singers of Providence, Rhode Island, 

will present a choral festival featuring a community sing 

led by composer, conductor, and educator Alice Parker.

Seattle Pro Musica will present a choral festival 

partnering with choruses from throughout the Pacific 

Northwest. 

Virginia Symphony Orchestra of Norfolk, Virginia, 

will present a choral festival with partner choruses the 

Virginia Chorale, Virginia Symphony Chorus, Virginia 

Children’s Chorus, and Norfolk State University Choir.

American Masterpieces: Choral Music

More information on American Masterpieces: Choral Music can be found at

 http://www.arts.gov/national/masterpieces/index.html
8

According to America’s Performing Art: A Study of Choruses, Choral Singers, and Their Impact commissioned by Chorus America, nearly 28.5 million adults 

and children in the United States are engaged in choral 

singing. In addition, not only are large numbers of 

Americans performing in choruses, but many of them 

are singing in more than one chorus—about one-third of 

them sing in two, three or more of the estimated 250,000 

choruses in this country. All told, more Americans engage 

in the public performance of choral singing than in any 

other art form. 

For most, choral singing begins in a school chorus—almost 70 percent of those who 

sing in choruses today say they sang in a chorus when they were in elementary or 

middle school. More than half of choral singers say they grew up in a home where 

another family member regularly sang in a chorus. This has important long-term 

implications for the role of education and families in early exposure to the arts. 

The broad appeal of choral singing stems from the opportunity it gives each singer to 

participate in an activity that involves them artistically, builds community, enhances 

their skills, and results in a product of great beauty. This multifaceted mission 

infuses choral organizations and their singers with energy and purpose that result in 

extraordinary contributions to their communities through stellar performances and 

recordings, innovative educational programs, and cooperative partnerships with other 

community organizations. 

Furthermore, the choral art form is kept vibrant by the commissioning of new works 

by many ensembles (an activity that has resulted in the majority of works cited in this 

publication). Choruses work with composers to ensure that the choral repertoire is 

continually reflective of contemporary themes and musical genres. 

Choral music embodies two of the most powerful forms of human expression, music 

and language, leading choral musicians and their audiences to connect intimately and 

immediately during performances. Both the quality and quantity of choral concerts 

are on the rise in the 21st century, an indication of the power, professionalism, and 

reach of this compelling art form. 

Choral Music in America
Composer Profiles

choral music
10
Selected Works

All works available from Boosey & Hawkes

A Nation of Cowslips 

SATB

Easter Day 

SATB

I Hate and I Love (Odi et Amo)

SATB, percussion

Jonah and the Whale 

Tenor, bass, narrator, SATB, percussion, 

brass

Peter Quince at the Clavier 

SATB, piano

Te Deum (Verba Domini cum 

verbis populi) 

SATB, orchestra

Tria Carmina Paschalia 

SSAA, harp, guitar

Walden Pond 

SATB, three cellos, harp

Selected Recordings

Appear and Inspire 

(Includes I Hate and I Love)

Robert Shaw Festival Singers

Robert Shaw, conductor

Telarc

Argento & Duruflé

Los Angeles Master Chorale

Paul Salamunovich, conductor

RCM

Walden Pond

Dale Warland Singers

Dale Warland, conductor

Gothic Records

Dominick Argento b. 1927

One of America’s best-known composers, Dominick Argento

joined the faculty of the University of 

Minnesota in 1958 and taught 

composition there for 39 years. He was 

born in York, Pennsylvania, attended the 

Peabody Conservatory, and earned his 

Ph.D. from the Eastman School of Music, 

where he studied with Howard Hanson, 

Bernard Rogers, and Alan Hovhaness. 

Previously he had studied with Henry 

Cowell, Hugo Weisgall, and Nicolas Nabokov at the Peabody 

Conservatory. In addition, he studied with Luigi Dallapiccola in Italy. 

Perhaps no composer in history has had a larger number of eminent 

masters, and then become one himself. 

Argento won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1975 for his song 

cycle From the Diary of Virginia Woolf. His 14 operas have met 

with nearly unanimous critical acclaim and have been successfully 

mounted both in the U.S. and in Europe. He shares with Gian Carlo 

Menotti—also of Italian heritage—the claim to being America’s 

leading composer of lyric opera. He differs from Menotti in employing 

less conservative principles of writing; however, although he has employed atonality and serial technique, his music has always remained 

tonally centered and focused on communicating drama and meaning 

rather than showing off his craft. 

In addition to his operatic, vocal, and orchestral works, Argento 

has composed a significant body of choral music. Perhaps most 

famous is his Te Deum, which was recorded and nominated for a 

Grammy. His Three Motets, consisting of “A Thanksgiving to God, for 

His House,” “Easter Day,” and “To God,” appear frequently on sacred 

music concerts. Secular choral works such as I Hate and I Love, based 

on texts by the Roman poet Catullus, and Peter Quince at the Clavier, a 

setting of a narrative verse by American poet Wallace Stevens, attest to 

the unusual literary sophistication of their composer.

11
Selected Works

All works available from G. Schirmer

Agnus Dei (Lamb of God)

SATB

A Nun Takes the Veil (Heaven-Haven) 

SATB or SSAA

A Stopwatch and an Ordnance Map

TTBB, timpani (and optional brass)

Let Down the Bars, O Death

SATB

Prayers of Kierkegaard

Soprano, SATB, orchestra

Reincarnations

SATB

Sure on this Shining Night

SA or SATB, piano (arr. Crocker)

Twelfth Night

SATB

Selected Recordings

Barber: Prayers of Kierkegaard

Atlanta Symphony Chorus

Robert Shaw, conductor

Telarc

Heaven to Earth 

(Includes “Agnus Dei”)

Westminster Choir

Joseph Flummerfelt, conductor

Avie Records

Reincarnations

Dale Warland Singers

Dale Warland, conductor

Gothic Records

Samuel Barber 1910–1981

Born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, Samuel Barber was a nephew of 

Louise Homer, a “golden age” contralto at 

the Metropolitan Opera, and he inherited 

a bit of voice himself. He not only took 

singing lessons but made a recording of 

his own setting of Matthew Arnold’s 

poem “Dover Beach.” Vocal and choral 

music remained lifelong affinities for him.

His music study began early: at seven 

he was writing piano pieces, and at 12 he 

got a paying job as a church organist. Unfortunately, the choirmaster 

one day demanded young Sam hold a note longer than the score 

indicated. He refused, and was fired. Two years later he was admitted 

into the first class of the new Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. 

That city’s great orchestra premiered his overture The School for 

Scandal when he was 23.

In the 1930s, while studying in Italy, he won the admiration of 

Arturo Toscanini, who conducted the premieres of two of his orchestral works, including the Adagio for Strings, which Barber had arranged 

from a movement of his String Quartet No. 1. When this became 

his most beloved work, he took the novel step of adapting its mournful but consoling melody into the choral “Agnus Dei,” so that it may 

be said to have three incarnations. (Reincarnations, not surprisingly, 

became another of his successful choral works; it consists of three 

settings of old Gaelic poetry as rewritten by James Stephens.)

Prayers of Kierkegaard, settings of four prayers by the Danish 

theologian Søren Kierkegaard, was completed in 1954 to a commission from the Koussevitzky Music Foundation and is regarded as 

one of Barber’s vocal masterpieces. His lovely 1968 Christmas piece, 

“Twelfth Night,” set to a text by British poet Laurie Lee, is another 

choral gem.

12
Selected Works

All works available from Boosey & Hawkes

Chichester Psalms 

Boy soprano, SATB or TTBB, orchestra

Hashkiveinu 

Cantor, SATB, organ

Kaddish (Symphony No. 3) 

Soprano, narrator, SATB, boys choir, 

orchestra

The Lark (French & Latin Choruses)

SATB 

Make Our Garden Grow (from Candide)

SATB, piano or orchestra (arr. Page)

Mass 

Baritone, boy soprano, SATB, children’s choir, 

orchestra

Selected Recordings

An American Collection

(Includes choruses from The Lark)

The Sixteen

Harry Christophers, conductor

CORO

Bernstein: Symphony No. 3 

(Includes Kaddish, Chichester Psalms)

Camerata Singers

Leonard Bernstein, conductor

Sony Classical

Leonard Bernstein 1918–1990

Leonard Bernstein was a media phenomenon as well as a great 

musician. From the momentous night 

when he substituted for an ailing Bruno 

Walter as conductor of the New York 

Philharmonic in 1943, he was news. The 

dashing, flamboyant youth was in the 

papers the next day, and ever since.

He was born in Lawrence, 

Massachusetts. His father, Sam, a Russian 

Jewish immigrant, wanted his son to join 

him in the beauty supply business, but from age ten, when his aunt 

Clara gave the family an old upright piano, Bernstein had ears only for 

music. He later studied at Harvard University (with Walter Piston), 

The Curtis Institute (with Fritz Reiner), and at Tanglewood (with 

Serge Koussevitzky)—in other words, with three of the greatest 

musicians within a thousand miles.

From 1944, when he wrote the ballet (and later musical) Fancy 

Free, to 1957, the year of his triumph with West Side Story, Bernstein 

was most active on Broadway and in films (e.g., On the Waterfront). 

After 1958, when he was appointed music director of the New York 

Philharmonic, his activities veered more towards classical repertoire, 

both in composing and conducting. 

Chichester Psalms is an uplifting choral composition commissioned 

for the 1965 Southern Cathedrals’ Festival at Chichester Cathedral. 

This piece, in which a chorus sings texts in Hebrew, has become 

Bernstein’s most famous choral work and one of America’s mostperformed choral masterpieces. 

His Mass, commissioned for the opening of the Kennedy Center 

in 1971, is an amalgam of Broadway, classical, jazz, gospel, rock, Jewish 

chant, swing, and virtually every other musical tradition Bernstein 

had experienced. Though initial reaction was hostile, within a year 

New York Times critic Donal Henahan deemed it “a minor miracle of 

skillful mixing.” 

13
Selected Works

Be Glad Then, America

SATB (arr. Pisano) 

Walton Music

David’s Lamentation

SATB (arr. Daniel) 

C.F. Peters

I Am the Rose of Sharon

SATB (arr. Pisano) 

Walton Music

The Lord Is Risen 

(An Anthem for Easter)

SATB (arr. Pisano) 

Walton Music

Modern Music

SATB (arr. Pisano) 

Walton Music

O Praise the Lord of Heaven 

(An Anthem for Thanksgiving)

SATB (arr. Van Camp) 

Concordia Publishing House

When Jesus Wept

SATB (arr. Parker/Shaw) 

Alfred

Selected Recordings

Early American Choral Music Vol. I

His Majestie’s Clerkes

Paul Hillier, conductor

Classical Express

I Am the Rose of Sharon

The Western Wind

Western Wind

William Billings: Wake Every Breath

William Appling Singers

William Appling, conductor

New World Records

William Billings 1746–1800

Bostonian William Billings was a tanner by trade. Lame, blind in one eye, rude in manner, and noted for “an uncommon negligence 

of person,” he was nevertheless 

the most important American 

composer of choral music in 

the 18th century. There were 

composers and music arrangers 

before him, but none whose 

names are familiar to anyone but 

scholars of Colonial times. 

Although Billings professed a free spirit (“I don’t think myself confin’d to any Rules for 

Composition”), he shared with many of his predecessors a strict adherence to the unaccompanied psalm-singing of the Calvinist Protestant 

tradition, i.e., “psalmody.” This music, strongly modal in flavor, was 

directly descended from Medieval and Renaissance choral singing. It 

is fascinating to find early American music more ancient in sound and 

structure than music of the same time in Europe, during the periods of 

Handel, Haydn, and Mozart.

In 1770 Billings published 120 vocal works under the title The 

New-England Psalm-Singer, which included a long preface of instruction. The frontispiece (shown above) was engraved by none other 

than Paul Revere—some say he also engraved the music, but there 

is no proof. This was followed by more collections, the most popular 

being The Singing Master’s Assistant of 1778, which went through four 

editions. 

Though mostly self-taught, Billings was a natural musician of 

great originality (if often rough technique), who by the time of the 

American Revolution was being touted as “the father of our new 

England music.” Sadly, his last years were spent in spiraling poverty, 

and by the time of his death he was so far forgotten that his place of 

burial was unrecorded, and is unknown to the present day. 

No known portrait of William Billings exists, though tradition holds 

that the figure on the left in the illustration above is Billings himself.

14
Selected Works

All works available from E.B. Marks 

Music Company

Alleluia

SATB

Carol (from The Wind in the Willows) 

(with Joan Morris)

SATB, piano

Chorale on St. Anne’s Hymn

Soprano, SATB, organ 

The Mask

SATB, piano

May-Day

SATB

Simple Stories

I. Dancers (Soprano, SATB)

II. Wheel of the Oxcart (SATB, chamber 

orchestra)

Songs of Innocence and of Experience

Soloists, choruses, and orchestra

Selected Recordings

The Mask

New York Concert Singers

Judith Clurman, conductor

New World Records

Songs of Innocence and of Experience

University Musical Society

Leonard Slatkin, conductor

Naxos

William Bolcom b. 1938

Composer and pianist William Bolcom is one of the few musicians 

since George Gershwin to comfortably 

straddle the divide between popular and 

classical music, elevating the former and 

demystifying the latter. 

He was born in Seattle, Washington, 

in 1938. Exhibiting exceptional early 

musical talent, at age 11 he began private 

composition and piano lessons with 

faculty at the University of Washington, 

where he later earned his B.A. Further studies followed with 

Darius Milhaud at Mills College in California and later at the Paris 

Conservatory. He completed his doctorate in composition at Stanford 

University in 1964, and returned to the Paris Conservatory where he 

won the Deuxième Prix in composition in 1965.

Compositions from every period of his life have earned him many 

commissions and countless honors, including the Pulitzer Prize for 

music in 1988 for 12 New Études for Piano. Bolcom’s work is well 

represented on recordings—as pianist, in collaboration with his wife, 

mezzo-soprano Joan Morris, and as composer. Bolcom has taught 

at the University of Michigan since 1973, where he has been a full 

professor since 1983. 

After the Ball, a recording of early 20th-century songs, almost 

created a new genre in the record industry, and was nominated for a 

Grammy. Grammys also were proposed for his Fourth Symphony and 

his Orphée-Serenade for chamber orchestra, but it was his masterpiece 

Songs of Innocence and of Experience, setting to music the William 

Blake poems of the same name, that finally won Grammys—four of 

them. Songs, a work on the scale of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, successfully synthesizes an impressive range of musical styles: reggae, classical, 

country western, rock, opera, and more. Other notable choral works 

include “May-Day,” an anthem on a text by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 

and The Mask, a cycle of five poems by African-American writers.

15
Selected Works

Deep River

SATB

G. Schirmer

Dig My Grave

SATB

G. Schirmer

Ethiopia’s Paean of Exaltation

SATB

Burleigh Estate

Go Down Moses

SATB or SSA

Ricordi

My Lord, What a Mornin’

SATB

Franco Columbo

Nobody Knows de Trouble I’ve Seen

SATB

Ricordi

Were You There?

SATB, piano

Franco Columbo

Selected Recordings

Got the Saint Louis Blues 

(Includes Ethiopia’s Paean to Exaltation)

VocalEssence 

Philip Brunelle, conductor

Clarion Records

Toil & Triumph: African American 

Spirituals 

The Spirituals Project Choir

Arlen Hershberger & Bennie Williams, 

conductors

The Spirituals Project

Harry T. Burleigh 1866–1949

I

n 1892, the great Bohemian composer 

Antonín Dvořák accepted an invitation to take directorship of the National 

Conservatory of Music in New York 

City. Before long he was spending many 

an evening listening with increasing 

fascination to the songs and spirituals 

of African-Americans as sung to him in 

the rich baritone of one of his students, 

Harry T. Burleigh. Dvořák would use 

some of these melodies the next year in 

his most famous symphony, No. 9, From the New World. Decades later 

Burleigh’s still expressive voice had a similar effect on Darius Milhaud, 

who incorporated influences of African-American music in his ballet 

La Création du Monde.

Burleigh was born just after the Civil War in Erie, Pennsylvania. 

As a child he heard his partially blind grandfather, a former slave, sing 

the old spirituals and plantation songs, and he developed a lifelong 

passion for music. As a youth he sang in his own Presbyterian church 

choir and at a Jewish temple. A scholarship enabled him to attend 

the National Conservatory where he studied voice, harmony, and 

counterpoint. 

In 1894 he became the first African-American soloist hired by 

St. George’s Episcopal Church in New York City. Befriended by the 

entrepreneur and philanthropist J. Pierpont Morgan, Burleigh stayed 

at St. George’s for 52 years, enabling him to spend the rest of his 

time following his muse. In addition to composing and performing, 

he helped foster the careers of other singers, most notably Marian 

Anderson and Paul Robeson. He was recognized with the NAACP 

Spingarn Medal and was a founding member of the American Society 

of Composers, Authors and Publishers. 

Burleigh is remembered today principally for his innumerable 

arrangements of spirituals, more than a hundred of them, many of 

which have become regarded as the standard versions. 

16
Selected Works

All works available from Theodore Presser 

Company

A Set of Chinese Folk Songs

SA(T) children’s chorus, strings

SATB, piano

TTBB

Chinese Mountain Songs

SSAA

Know You How Many Petals Falling

SATB

Landscape

SATB

Spring Dreams

SATB

Tang Poems

TTBB or SATB, chamber orchestra

The West Lake

SATB

Selected Recordings

Colors of Love 

(Includes Tang Poems)

Chanticleer

Joseph Jennings, music director

Teldec

Eclectric

(Includes “The West Lake”)

Chicago a cappella

Centaur Records

Chen Yi b. 1953

Chen Yi is one of today’s most cosmopolitan composers. Born 

in China in 1953 to a family of classical 

music lovers, she began studying violin 

and piano at the age of three. As a 

young woman she studied theory and 

composition in both hemispheres: at 

the Beijing Central Conservatory, and 

later at Columbia University in New 

York City. 

In her works she has endeavored 

to blend elements of Eastern and Western music in a way that 

appeals to listeners from all cultures. She has produced an enormous 

body of work with remarkable speed and facility, resulting in countless honors and fellowships, commissions from major artists and 

orchestras, worldwide performances, and award-winning recordings.

In 1986 she became the first woman in China ever to receive a 

master’s degree in composition. Dr. Chen has taught composition at 

the Peabody Conservatory and the University of Missouri-Kansas 

City Conservatory of Music. She served as Composer-in-Residence 

with the Women’s Philharmonic, Chanticleer, and the Aptos 

Creative Arts Center in San Francisco. She received the prestigious 

Charles Ives Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and 

Letters, and in 2005 was elected to the American Academy of Arts 

and Sciences.

She has written choral music for the Kansas City Chorale, 

Chicago a cappella, the San Francisco Girls Chorus, and the 

Singapore Youth Choir, among others. “Know You How Many 

Petals Falling?” was premiered by the Elmer Iseler Singers at the 

Sixth World Symposium on Choral Music in 2002. Among her 

many other choral pieces that might be singled out for special 

mention are “To the New Millennium,” “Spring Dreams,” the Chinese 

Myths Cantata, Chinese Poems, and her Set of Chinese Folk Songs in 

three volumes. 

17
Selected Works

All works available from Boosey 

& Hawkes, except as noted

At The River 

SATB, SA, TTBB, or unison, piano 

(arr. Wilding-White) 

Four Motets 

SATB 

In the Beginning 

Mezzo-soprano, SATB div 

Lark

Baritone, SATB 

ECS Publishing

The Promise of Living; Stomp Your 

Foot (from The Tender Land)

SATB, orchestra or piano 4-hands 

Simple Gifts 

SATB, SA, TB, or unison, piano 

(arr. Brunner) 

Zion’s Walls 

SATB, SSAA, TTBB, or unison, piano 

(arr. Koponen) 

Selected Recordings

Bernstein: Chichester Psalms; Copland: 

In the Beginning; Barber: Agnus Dei

Corydon

Matthew Best, conductor

Hyperion Records

The Tender Land 

Chorus of the Plymouth Music Series

Philip Brunelle, conductor

Virgin Classics

Aaron Copland 1900–1990

Aaron Copland was not the only great American classical composer 

in the 20th century. There were dozens of 

others, as Copland himself emphatically 

proclaimed. But quite early in his career 

Copland became known as “the dean of 

American composers,” and there was no 

one who subsequently fit the description 

more neatly. 

Born in the first year of the century, 

his life spanned nine productive decades. 

He not only wrote his own music, he worked tirelessly to promote 

the music of his fellow composers. Copland was the first American 

composer to be internationally recognized as creating musical works 

that were both distinctively American and unquestionably of lasting 

merit. 

Written in 1954, his opera The Tender Land stands as the culminating masterpiece of his “Americana” period of composition, 

ca. 1935-1955. “Stomp Your Foot,” a choral square dance from the 

second act, is considered one of the most rousing moments in 

American opera.

Originally composed for solo voice and piano, Old American Songs 

consists of ten settings of minstrel and religious songs from the 19th 

century. Copland later transcribed them for voice and orchestra. Other 

composers, notably Irving Fine, have arranged most of them for chorus 

in various voicings.

Also significant in Copland’s choral canon are his Four Motets for 

mixed voices, “Lark” for baritone solo and mixed chorus, and In the 

Beginning, a jazz-tinged work for unaccompanied chorus and mezzosoprano “narrator” describing the seven days of creation from the Bible. 

18
Selected Works

All works available from Blue Butterfly 

Group, except as noted

Native American Suite

SATB, quartz crystal flute, percussion 

earthsongs

Powwow Symphony

SATB div, quartz crystal flute, orchestra, 

Powwow M.C., dancers 

She Is One of Us

SATB div, quartz crystal flute, hand drum 

Un-Covered Wagon

SATB div, 2 nose flutes 

We the People

SATB div, American Indian flute and 

percussion, orchestra

Selected Recordings

Our American Journey 

(Includes Un-Covered Wagon)

Chanticleer

Joseph Jennings, music director

Teldec

Brent Michael Davids b. 1959

When American composers are described as “native” the definition is not usually as accurate as when 

applied to Brent Michael Davids, a 

American Indian and enrolled member of 

the Mohican Nation. He has consciously 

and deliberately focused on his indigenous 

heritage, honoring its unique qualities 

in a contemporary setting. He blends 

Eurocentric techniques of classical 

music composition with Native musical 

traditions in a way that is never glib or facile, but rich in resonance.

Davids earned a master’s degree in music composition from 

Arizona State University and also trained in film music at Robert 

Redford’s Sundance Institute. He has won numerous awards and 

honors from ASCAP, the National Endowment for the Arts, and 

other organizations, and has been commissioned by the Kronos 

Quartet (The Singing Woods), The Joffrey Ballet (Moon of the Falling 

Leaves), and the National Symphony Orchestra (Canyon Sunrise). 

Most of his works employ traditional Native American instruments 

and often some of his own design, including quartz crystal flutes.

Davids has worked extensively in the choral field. His work for 

200-voice chorus and orchestra, We the People, honors the National 

Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. with the names 

of all the American Indian nations sung back to back, without repeats, 

for 30 minutes. 

Earlier choral pieces of note include Night Chant, Mohican Soup, 

and Un-Covered Wagon, all commissioned by Chanticleer; and the 

Native American Suite, written for the Dale Warland Singers.

19
Selected Works

All works available from Neil A. Kjos 

Music Company

Ain’-a That Good News 

SATB, SSAA, or TTBB

Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit 

SATB, SSAA, or TTBB

Ezekiel Saw de Wheel

SATB

Mary Had a Baby 

SATB or TTBB

Oh, What a Beautiful City 

SATB

Soon Ah Will Be Done 

SATB or TTBB

Steal Away 

SATB or TTBB

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot 

SATB, SSA, or TTBB

There Is a Balm in Gilead 

SATB, SSA, or TTBB

There’s a Lit’l Wheel A-Turnin’ 

in My Heart

SATB 

Selected Recordings

Spirituals

Tuskegee Institute Choir

William L. Dawson, conductor

Neil A. Kjos Music Company

The Spirituals of William Dawson

The St. Olaf Choir

Anton Armstrong, conductor

St. Olaf Records

William Dawson 1899–1990

William Dawson’s name is among the most familiar of all 

African-American composers of classical 

music. His long and distinguished career 

centered on the famed Tuskegee Institute, 

which he began attending at age 13 after 

running away from home in order to 

enroll. A native of Alabama, Dawson 

worked at manual labor to put himself 

through Tuskegee. Ten years after graduating he founded the School of Music 

there and conducted the 100-voice Tuskegee Choir for 25 years. He 

brought the choir to national prominence, directing it in performances 

at Radio City Music Hall, Carnegie Hall, and the White House. 

He was active beyond the Institute as well. In addition to earning degrees in theory and composition, he played trombone in the 

Chicago Civic Symphony and taught in the public schools. He was a 

young man when his Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano was performed at 

a Kansas City Symphony concert. 

But it was after the premiere of his Negro Folk Symphony with 

The Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski in 1934 

that his worldwide reputation was ensured. He traveled the world to 

lecture, guest conduct choral groups and symphony orchestras, and 

undertake research into native music of Africa. Although his compositional output always celebrated the traditions of his African-American 

heritage, influences from his broad experience as a musician and 

scholar were plentiful. 

Dawson is most remembered for his vocal music, including some 

of the most admired settings of spirituals, such as “Ain’-a That Good 

News,” “Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit,” “Ezekiel Saw de Wheel,” and 

“There Is a Balm in Gilead.” These have been sung and enjoyed for 

decades around the world. 

20 
Selected Works

Ave Maria

Baritone, SATB 

Hinshaw Music

The Chariot Jubilee

Tenor, SATB, organ/piano or orchestra

Listen to the Lambs

Soprano, SATB or SAB (arr. Nash) 

SSAA (arr. Harris) 

G. Schirmer

The Ordering of Moses

SATB soli, SATB div, piano/organ or 

orchestra 

European American Music

Selected Recordings

Listen to the Lambs

Nathaniel Dett Chorale

Brainerd Blyden-Taylor, conductor

Marquis Classics

Got the Saint Louis Blues

(Includes The Chariot Jubilee)

VocalEssence

Philip Brunelle, conductor

Clarion Records

R. Nathaniel Dett 1882–1943

RNathaniel Dett belonged to . the generation before Dawson 

and perhaps because of that has been 

less well-known until recently, but his 

achievements were no less impressive. He possessed sterling academic 

credentials including a doctorate 

from Harvard University and study 

with Nadia Boulanger at the Paris 

Conservatory.

As a concert pianist, he played at 

Carnegie Hall and other august venues. He was hired in 1933 to 

conduct a 16-voice choir for Stromberg-Carlson’s weekly NBC radio 

broadcasts. In addition to writing prize-winning articles on “Negro 

music,” he edited notable collections of spirituals and folksongs. 

Dett also created his own distinctive arrangements of spirituals and 

composed several major works for chorus and orchestra.

Although he was clearly dedicated to the cause of AfricanAmerican music, he insisted on the right and even duty of AfricanAmerican musicians to avail themselves of Western European 

classical music forms. He believed that traditional African-American 

melodies and rhythms were fully amenable to being incorporated 

into operas, concertos, and orchestral concert music. 

“Listen to the Lambs,” an anthem for eight-part mixed chorus 

written in 1914, is one of his best-known choral works. His collections of spirituals in his own arrangements are principally found 

in his publications Religious Folksongs of the Negro and the Dett 

Collection of Negro Spirituals. Other notable choral works include 

“Ave Maria” for baritone and four-part mixed chorus, and two 

oratorios based on spirituals, The Chariot Jubilee and The Ordering 

of Moses.

21
Selected Works

A Stephen Foster Medley

SATB (arr. Washburn)

Camptown Races, Beautiful Dreamer, 

Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair, 

My Old Kentucky Home, Oh! Susanna

Walton Music

Beautiful Dreamer 

SATB (arr. Parker/Shaw) 

Alfred

Camptown Races

SATB div (arr. Halloran)

Gentry

Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming

SATB

G. Schirmer

Hard Times Come Again No More

SATB

Golden Book of Song

Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair

SATB (arr. McConnell)

Hinshaw Music

Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)

SATB div (arr. Perna)

William Grant Still Music

Three Portraits by Stephen Foster 

SATB, piano (arr. Fissinger)

Laura Lee, Gentle Annie, Oh! Susanna

Walton Music

Selected Recordings

Songs of the Civil War 

& Stephen Foster Favorites

Mormon Tabernacle Choir

Sony Classical

Stephen Foster Songbook

Robert Shaw Chorale

Robert Shaw, conductor

RCA Records

Stephen Foster 1826–1864

Although he wrote a few solo piano pieces in his short life, Stephen 

Foster produced songs almost 

exclusively—over 200 of them. His 

simple, moving melodies have the 

distinct flavor of a bygone day and 

yet seem to stay fresh forever. They 

have such a timeless quality that many 

have assumed they were folk songs. 

Years after his tragic story became 

known—how he wrote most of his best 

songs in a period of ten years and died at age 38 with 37 cents in his 

pocket—he became a figure of American myth. 

He was not, as legend has it, an untutored genius who dashed 

off miracles of melody in flashes of divine inspiration. He came from 

a solid middle-class family in Pennsylvania where he was schooled 

in private academies, had some formal music study, and labored long 

hours over his scores, often agonizing over the minutest details. This 

is not to say he was not precocious: his first song, “Open Thy Lattice 

Love,” was published when he was 18. He was 20 when he had his 

first hit, “Oh! Susanna,” although he realized only $100 for it. The 

absence of enforceable copyright for his songs meant royalties were 

rare.

“Old Folks at Home” (also known as “Swanee River”) was the 

biggest success of his lifetime. It was felt that this was the definitive 

lyrical expression of longing for the Old South, and yet, Foster had 

been there only briefly, once, on his honeymoon. Scores of other 

heartfelt songs, including “Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming,” 

“Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair,” “Hard Times Come Again No 

More,” “Camptown Races,” and “Beautiful Dreamer” continue to 

touch listeners in their original versions and in countless fine choral 

arrangements.

22
Selected Works

All works available from Lawdon Press

A Quiet Moment

SATB, TTBB, or SSAA 

Deep in the Night

SATB

Imagine

SATB or TTBB

O magnum mysterium

SATB, 2 flutes, 2 crystal glasses, chimes

Sanctus

SATB div

Sing, Sing

SATB

Southern Grace

SATB

This Singing Art

SATB, chimes, organ

Voice of the Bard

TTBB

Selected Recordings

All Is Bright

(Includes “O magnum mysterium”)

Handel & Haydn Society

Grant Llewellyn, conductor

Avie Records

A Season’s Promise

(Includes “Deep in the Night”) 

New York Concert Singers

Judith Clurman, conductor

New World Records

Jennifer Higdon b. 1962

By her early 40s Jennifer Higdon had already composed 60 works. USA Today chose her orchestral score Shine as Best 

Contemporary Piece of 1996. Her Concerto for Orchestra caused a 

sensation at its premiere in 2002 by The Philadelphia Orchestra. It 

was nominated for four Grammy Awards, but even more importantly 

it caught the ear of major conductors such as Robert Spano and 

Leonard Slatkin who became eager to program her music. Suddenly, 

she was forced to turn down commissions for lack of time.

Although she was born in Brooklyn, New York, Higdon grew up 

in rural Tennessee. Her first exposure to music was the late-1960s 

rock favored by her counterculture parents, and playing the flute in 

her high school marching band. Along her academic journey she 

discovered a love of composition. After graduating from The Curtis 

Institute of Music she became a professor of composition there, as 

well as Composer-in-Residence with the Philadelphia Singers.

She has established herself as one of America’s most soughtafter choral composers. Among her best-known choral works are “O 

magnum mysterium” for mixed choir and small instrumental 

ensemble, an ingenious setting of both the Latin and English texts 

of the traditional meditation on the birth of Christ, and “Deep 

in the Night,” an a cappella setting of Higdon’s own poem which 

ClassicsToday.com reviewer David Felsenfeld singled out for its 

“steady, rapturous monochromatic build.” Her largest choral composition has been Southern Grace, a suite of eight choral songs based on 

old Southern tunes, concluding with a chorale on “Amazing Grace.”

23
Selected Works

All works available from Hal Leonard 

The Battle of Jericho

SATB div

Elijah Rock

SATB div

Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit

SATB

Give Me Jesus

SATB 

My Soul’s Been Anchored in the Lord

SATB div

Ride On, King Jesus

SATB div or SSAA

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

SATB

This Little Light of Mine

SATB div

Wade in the Water

SATB

Selected Recordings

Deep River; This Little Light of Mine;

Choral Series 2002

Moses Hogan Singers & Chorale

Moses Hogan, conductor

MGH Records

Negro Spirituals

Moses Hogan Chorale

Moses Hogan, conductor

Virgin Classics

Moses Hogan 1957–2003

A native of New Orleans, Moses Hogan spent most of his career 

in that city except for music studies 

(principally piano) at the Oberlin 

Conservatory of Music and The 

Juilliard School. He also studied at 

Louisiana State University (Baton 

Rouge) and the New Orleans Center 

for Creative Arts. He won first place 

in the 28th annual Kosciuszko 

Foundation Chopin Competition in 

New York and soon achieved an international reputation as pianist, 

conductor, and arranger. 

Hogan was one of America’s most admired choral arrangers of 

the younger generation, building on the tradition of predecessors 

like Harry T. Burleigh and R. Nathaniel Dett. He founded the 

acclaimed Moses Hogan Singers in 1993, and was subsequently 

appointed Artist-in-Residence at Dillard University in New 

Orleans. In 1995 he arranged and performed several pieces for 

the PBS documentary The American Promise. At the height of his 

career, he died unexpectedly on February 11, 2003 at the age of 45.

Hogan’s sensitive settings, more contemporary in sound than 

those that held sway for decades, are accessible without sacrificing 

dignity. They have become favorites of high school, college, church, 

community, and professional choirs, as well as with audiences worldwide. In addition, his arrangements have been generously praised by 

critics in the New York Times and Gramophone magazine, among 

others. 

Surely one of his finest legacies was editing the Oxford Book of 

Spirituals, first published in 2001 and recognized today as one of the 

most comprehensive anthologies of spirituals ever assembled.

24
Selected Works

All works available from Peermusic 

Classical, except as noted

The Celestial Country

Tenor, baritone, two SATB solo quartets, 

SATB, chamber orchestra 

Crossing the Bar

SATB, organ 

G. Schirmer

Easter Carol

SATB soli, SATB, organ 

G. Schirmer

General William Booth 

Enters into Heaven

Unison chorus, orchestra (arr. Becker)

Processional: Let There Be Light

SATB or TTBB, organ or string orchestra 

Psalm 90 

SATB div, organ, bells 

Merton Music

They Are There! (A War Song March) 

Unison chorus, piano (ed. Smith) 

Three Harvest Home Chorales

SATB div, brass, organ

Selected Recordings

Charles Ives - The Celestial Country

The St. Olaf Choir

Anton Armstrong, conductor

St. Olaf Records 

Heaven to Earth

Westminster Choir

Joseph Flummerfelt, conductor

Avie Records

Charles Ives 1874–1954

Charles Ives, born in Danbury, Connecticut, was a mild-mannered 

businessman by day and an unstoppable 

composer by night. Inspired by his father, 

who had experimented with quarter-tone 

music and polytonality decades before the 

“modern” composers, and by the transcendentalist philosophy of so many New 

England writers, Ives sought to write truly 

American music in a style divorced from 

the orthodox European traditions.

After graduating from Yale University he married and went into 

the insurance business, finding it in accord with his humanitarian 

impulses. Beginning in about 1922 his compositions began to circulate 

among interested musicians and gradually some of the works received 

performances and critical acclaim. In 1947 his Symphony No. 3 was 

awarded the Pulitzer Prize—42 years after it was composed! (He gave 

the money away, commenting that “prizes are for mediocrity.”)

Despite Ives’s radicalism, much of his sacred choral music came 

from his early career, while he was still a church organist, and it 

tends to be conservative. The sacred cantata The Celestial Country 

could almost have been written by his Yale music professor, the staid 

Horatio Parker. The same can be said for most of his Psalm settings, 

yet they are all worth hearing if not fully characteristic of his musical 

philosophy. His wife said “Psalm 90” was the only one with which he 

was fully satisfied. Meanwhile the Three Harvest Home Chorales have 

had a vigorous concert career.

His secular choral works span his whole career. Many of these, 

however, are re-arrangements of his solo songs by himself or others. 

John J. Becker made the chorus and orchestra version of General 

William Booth Enters into Heaven, while Ives himself was responsible 

for Lincoln, the Great Commoner. 

25
Selected Works

All works available from G. Schirmer, 

except as noted

Dorma, Ador

Mezzo-soprano, SATB 

Boosey & Hawkes

Ecstatic Meditations

Soprano, tenor, SATB div 

Garden of Light 

Boy soprano, SATB soli, SATB, 

children’s choir, orchestra 

I Will Lie Down

SATB, piano 

Music Is a Gift 

SATB, piano 

Boosey & Hawkes

Stein Times Seven

SATB, piano 

Teach Me Thy Way, O Lord

SATB, organ 

Two Meditations

SATB, organ 

Boosey & Hawkes

Selected Recordings

Voices 1900/2000 

(Includes Ecstatic Meditations)

San Francisco Symphony Chorus

Vance George, conductor

Delos International

Aaron Jay Kernis b. 1960

A native of Philadelphia, Aaron Jay Kernis is one of today’s mostperformed living composers. His music 

is noted for its exuberant eclecticism, 

expressive lyricism, and engaging wit. 

He was one of the youngest composers 

ever to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for 

music (String Quartet No. 2).

From his very first works in the early 

1980s he has unapologetically mixed 

every genre—from pop and jazz to 

classical, from medieval Church music to Jewish cantillation—into 

his works, with a primary objective of communicating with everyday 

people. 

Kernis decided at the age of 13 to become a composer, after 

learning violin and then teaching himself piano. He studied at 

Manhattan School of Music, the San Francisco Conservatory of 

Music, and Yale University. Among his instructors in composition were John Adams, Charles Wuorinen, Jacob Druckman, and 

Morton Subotnick. He currently serves as New Music Advisor to 

the Minnesota Orchestra and teaches composition at Yale University. 

Liveliness and vivid color are qualities constantly remarked about 

his earlier works, which seemed imbued with the sheer joy of musicmaking. Newer works have often been more somber. His inspirations 

have ranged from salsa dancing to the Persian Gulf War.

A number of choral works have attracted favorable notice. 

Ecstatic Meditations sets words of the medieval mystic Mechthild of 

Magdeburg. Stein Times Seven was his 1980 choral tribute to poet 

Gertrude Stein. His most ambitious choral work to date is Garden 

of Light, commissioned by the Disney Company for the third millennium celebrations. More recently, Two Meditations, written for the 

Cincinnati Vocal Arts Ensemble, is a setting of two psalms that speak 

to the acceptance of death and the loving presence of God.

26
Selected Works

All works available from ECS Publishing, 

except as noted

Canticle of the Sun

SSAAA, finger cymbals, synthesizer, 

organ 

I Find My Feet Have Further Goals

SATB 

Oxford University Press

In a Winter Garden

Soloists, SATB, chamber orchestra 

Missa Gaia: Mass for the Earth

Soprano, SATB, SSA choir (optional), oboe, 

strings, piano 4-hands 

Ringeltänze

SATB, handbells, string orchestra

The Settling Years

SATB, woodwind quintet, piano 

Seven Ghosts

Soprano, SATB, brass quintet, piano, 

percussion 

Oxford University Press 

Song-Dances to the Light

SA, Orff instruments, full orchestra 

Oxford University Press

Selected Recordings

Choral Currents 

(Includes The Settling Years)

The Dale Warland Singers

Dale Warland, conductor 

Innova Recordings

Missa Gaia: Mass for the Earth

Oregon Repertory Singers

Gilbert Seely, conductor

Koch International Classics

Libby Larsen b. 1950

Libby Larsen has had a remarkable two-track career as a successful 

composer and as an effective advocate for 

composers. Her catalogue of more than 

200 works in many genres has assured 

her an important place in American 

concert life; and her founding in 1973, 

with Stephen Paulus, of the American 

Composers Forum, has led to an everexpanding network of involvement in 

organizations that support and promote 

the musical arts. She has held the Harissios Papamarkou Chair in 

Education and Technology at the Library of Congress and received a 

Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Academy of Arts 

and Letters. The breadth and depth of her achievement are tributes to 

an extraordinary physical and mental energy.

Larsen was born in Wilmington, Delaware, but has lived most of 

her life in Minnesota, where she studied composition at the University 

of Minnesota under Dominick Argento, Eric Stokes, and Paul Fetler. 

Her music is often praised for its vigor and vision, its masterful 

melding of eclectic elements (jazz, pop music, and parlor songs are 

all on occasion woven into her tightly controlled classical structures), 

and its frequent forays into whimsy, as evidenced by such titles as The 

Astonishing Flight of the Gump and Psyke and the Psyskraper. She is 

equally able, however, to touch deep chords of feeling as in her song 

cycle Sonnets from the Portuguese.

In vocal and choral music she has especially triumphed. USA 

Today has called her “the only English-speaking composer since 

Benjamin Britten who matches great verse with fine music so intelligently and expressively.” Among her best-known choral works are 

Ringeltänze, sparkling Christmas music for chorus, strings, and handbells, and The Settling Years, settings of American pioneer texts for 

mixed chorus, woodwind quintet, and piano.

27
Selected Works

All works available from Peermusic 

Classical

Ave Dulcissima Maria 

TTBB

Ave Maria 

SATB

Les Chansons des Roses 

SATB, piano

Lux Aeterna 

SATB, chamber orchestra or organ

Madrigali: Six Fire Songs on Italian 

Renaissance Poems 

SATB

Mid-Winter Songs 

SATB, chamber orchestra

O Magnum Mysterium 

SATB or TTBB

Three Nocturnes 

SATB, piano

Ubi Caritas et Amor 

SATB

Selected Recordings

Lux Aeterna

Los Angeles Master Chorale

Paul Salamunovich, conductor

RCM

Morten Lauridsen: Lux Aeterna

Polyphony 

Stephen Layton, conductor

Hyperion Records

Morten Lauridsen b. 1943

The composer who can make a career almost exclusively from 

choral music has been a rarity since the 

Baroque era, but Morten Lauridsen

has done it in our day, and while living, 

studying, and working in the same 

general area his entire life. 

Born in the state of Washington, 

he was reared in Portland, Oregon, 

worked for the Forest Service near 

volcanic Mount St. Helens for a time, 

then studied composition at the University of Southern California 

where Halsey Stevens and Ingolf Dahl were among his distinguished teachers. He progressed rapidly to become a professor of 

composition at Thornton School of Music at the University of 

Southern California, a position he has held for more than 30 years, 

chairing the department for 13 years. 

From 1994 to 2001 he was Composer-in-Residence of the 

Los Angeles Master Chorale, which frequently performed his works 

and helped to promote them around the world. Along with Randall 

Thompson, he is now one of America’s most frequently performed 

choral composers—his works have appeared on more than 100 

CDs. 

“O Magnum Mysterium” is the best-known of his sacred 

a cappella motets and has become distributor Theodore Presser’s 

best-selling choral octavo in its history dating back to 1783. It 

offers one of the most haunting vistas of Lauridsen’s often serenely 

mystical style. Also high on the list of favorites are his Madrigali: Six 

Fire Songs on Italian Renaissance Poems, along with six other cycles 

taking their textual inspiration from around the globe: Mid-Winter 

Songs, Les Chansons des Roses, Cuatro Canciones, Nocturnes, Lux 

Aeterna, and A Winter Come.

28
Selected Works

All works available from Walton Music

A Capital Ship 

Two-Part or SATB

All Through the Night 

SATB

A-Roving

TTBB

Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair

SATB

Dixie

SATB

Riders in the Sky 

TTBB 

Skip to My Lou

SATB

Vigolin

SATB

Whoopee Ti Yi Yo

SATB or TTBB

Yellow Bird

SATB

Selected Recordings

Songs of the South/Songs of the Sea

Norman Luboff Choir

Norman Luboff, conductor

Collectables

Velvet Voices, Satin Songs

Norman Luboff Choir

Norman Luboff, conductor

Good Music Company

Norman Luboff 1917–1987

The days are gone when association with Hollywood and popular 

culture was a mark against the “serious” 

musician: the great Wagnerian soprano 

Helen Traubel’s career at the Met in the 

1950s, for example, was doomed after 

she dared to sing at a night club on an off 

night. 

Perhaps something of the same 

was suffered by Norman Luboff, one of 

America’s great choral directors and 

arrangers, who dared to make much of his living working in the 

popular culture media of his era. And maybe that is why today he is 

being reassessed and newly appreciated for the sterling musician he 

was, and for his enormous contributions to American choral music.

Luboff was born in Chicago and studied at the University of 

Chicago and Central College, doing graduate work with Leo Sowerby. 

He put himself through school by singing and composing for local 

radio stations. He moved to New York City hoping to make a career in 

radio music, then was lured to Hollywood to direct choral music for a 

popular national radio show, The Railroad Hour. 

Soon he was scoring for early television programs and for more 

than 80 Hollywood films. His Norman Luboff Choir recorded more 

than 75 albums over a period of 25 years, sometimes featuring solos 

by singers such as Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, and Jo Stafford. He took 

pains also to record classical choral music from the Renaissance to 

recent times as well; these recordings, however, did not receive the 

critical attention they deserved. 

One of his most important legacies is his prolific output of 

engaging and accessible folk song arrangements, which helped preserve 

these beloved melodies from generation to generation. His vast and 

invaluable collection of scores and memorabilia was donated to the 

Library of Congress in 1993.

29
Selected Works

All works available from G. Schirmer, 

except as noted

Amahl and the Night Visitors

Soloists, SATB, two pianos or orchestra

The Death of the Bishop of Brindisi 

Soloists, SATB, children’s chorus, orchestra

For the Death of Orpheus

Tenor, SATB, orchestra

Llama de amor viva

Baritone, SATB, orchestra 

Missa O Pulchritudo

SATB soli, SATB, orchestra

Muero porque no muero 

(Cantata for St. Teresa of Avila)

Soprano, SATB, orchestra 

The Unicorn, the Gorgon 

and the Manticore

SATB, chamber ensemble, dancers

Alfred

Selected Recordings

Menotti

(Includes For the Death of Orpheus)

Spoleto Festival 

Richard Hickox, conductor

Chandos Records

The Unicorn, the Gorgon 

& the Manticore

Carolina Chamber Choir

Timothy Koch, conductor

Albany Records

Gian Carlo Menotti b. 1911

I

n America, especially after World 

War I, the popularity of opera 

was challenged by both the cinema 

and the Broadway musical show. All 

the more striking, then, has been 

the success of Gian Carlo Menotti, 

an Italian-American who has dared 

to center his career on writing 

operas, two of which (The Saint of 

Bleecker Street and The Consul) won 

the Pulitzer Prize for music among 

other awards.

Unashamedly conservative in technique, Menotti has always 

written in a traditional tonal language. His television Christmas 

opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, won him a mass audience and 

remains today one of the most frequently performed stage works in 

America.

Despite his concentration on opera, he has also composed a 

significant body of choral music. The largest has been the cantata 

The Death of the Bishop of Brindisi. The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the 

Manticore, designated a “madrigal-ballet,” is sung as well as danced. 

Missa O Pulchritudo is scored for soloists, chorus, and orchestra 

and was premiered at the Spoleto Festival in Italy, which Menotti 

founded in 1958.

Menotti has shown extraordinary vigor at an age when most 

people have been long retired. He has continued to compose, and 

to direct opera, well into his 90s. In his later years he has become 

if anything even more prolific in the choral field. For the Death of 

Orpheus was first performed under the direction of Robert Shaw in 

1990, a Gloria was written in 1995 as part of a composite Mass by 

various composers, and “Jacob’s Prayer” (1997) was commissioned 

by the American Choral Directors Association.

30
Selected Works

All works available from Alfred, except as 

noted

Amazing Grace

SATB 

Black, Black, Black

SATB

Carol of the Birds

SATB 

G. Schirmer

Haul Away, Joe

TTBB

He’s Gone Away

SATB

Lowlands

TTBB

Saints Bound for Heaven

SATB 

Seeing Nellie Home

TTBB 

Sometimes I Feel

Alto, SATB or Baritone, TTBB 

What Shall We Do with the Drunken 

Sailor?

TTBB

Selected Recordings

My Love and I

Men of Melodious Accord

Alice Parker, conductor

Gothic Records

Amazing Grace: American Hymns 

and Spirituals 

Robert Shaw Chorale

Robert Shaw, conductor

Telarc

Alice Parker (b. 1925) & Robert Shaw (1916–1999)

Composer and conductor Alice Parker, now living in Massachusetts, says she sang before 

she spoke—an appropriate beginning for a career 

spanning nearly six decades and dedicated to the music 

of the human voice. Parker began composing at age 

five and wrote her first orchestral score while still in 

high school. Later she attended Smith College and 

The Juilliard School, studying composition and conducting. She was 

associated for many years with Robert Shaw in arranging spirituals, 

folk songs, and hymns that have become part of the standard choral 

repertoire around the world. 

Parker has received literally hundreds of commissions from 

choruses all over North America and composed major vocal works 

from cantata to opera, including sacred anthems and songs to texts 

by distinguished poets. Her own group, the 16-voice Musicians of 

Melodious Accord, has presented an annual concert series in New 

York City since 1985, and recorded several albums. Parker conducts 

workshops and lectures in the U.S. and abroad. She has written 

several books and received four honorary doctorates. 

During his long and distinguished career, Atlanta-born Robert Shaw became one 

of the world’s most respected and beloved choral 

directors. His Robert Shaw Chorale, founded in 

1948, set high standards for choral singing, toured 

the world, and made dozens of best-selling recordings, four of which were awarded Grammys. His 

many arrangements of spirituals and other choral music are among the 

best-known in the repertoire. Dear People, an authorized biography, 

captures Shaw’s legacy as an innovative interpreter of masterpieces of 

the classical canon who inspired an entire generation of choral singers 

and conductors. 

31
Selected Works

All works available from Paulus 

Publications, except as noted

Calming the Storm

SATB

The Day Is Done

SATB

Hallelu!

Two-part voices, harp or piano

European American Music

Love Opened a Mortal Wound

SATB

Meditations of Li Po

SATB

European American Music

Pilgrim Jesus

SATB, organ

European American Music

Pilgrims’ Hymn

SATB

So Hallow’d Is the Time

Boy soprano, tenor, baritone, SATB, 

chamber orchestra 

European American Music

Selected Recordings

Divine Grandeur

(Includes Meditations of Li Po)

The New York Concert Singers

Judith Clurman, conductor

New World Records

Harvest Home

Dale Warland Singers

Dale Warland, conductor

Gothic Records

Stephen Paulus b. 1949

Stephen Paulus is nationally and internationally recognized as one 

of today’s leading composers. Born in 

Summit, New Jersey, he studied at the 

University of Minnesota under both 

Paul Fetler and Dominick Argento. In 

1973, with Libby Larsen, he founded the 

American Composers Forum. He has 

been Composer-in-Residence with both 

the Minnesota Orchestra and the Atlanta 

Symphony Orchestra.

His style is usually diatonic and accessible, always noted for 

solid construction and expert scoring. But perhaps what makes his 

work stand out the most is what the New York Times called “melodic 

patterns that are fresh and familiar at the same time.” As a result, his 

choral works are regularly performed by choruses ranging from high 

school to fully professional groups. His more than 50 recordings place 

him among the most-recorded of contemporary American composers.

He is also a respected composer of opera. His nine stage works 

include The Postman Always Rings Twice, based on the novel by James 

M. Cain and first presented by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. The 

following year it became the first American opera production mounted 

by the Edinburgh International Festival. In addition, Paulus is the only 

American composer to have a work commissioned for the Festival of 

Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s College, Cambridge, in England. 

Perhaps his best-known choral work is “Pilgrims’ Hymn,” 

originally composed for the church opera The Three Hermits. Most 

notably performed at President Reagan’s funeral, its transparent 

beauty has made it a perennial favorite. Other highly regarded compositions include the Christmas suite, So Hallow’d Is the Time; Letters for 

the Times, based on 17th-century American newspapers and diaries; 

and Meditations of Li Po, based on contemplative 8th-century Chinese 

texts.

32
Selected Works

All works available from Boosey 

& Hawkes, except as noted

A Whitman Cantata

TTBB, twelve brass, timpani

Canticles, Set I

Confiteor tibi, Unison

Magnificat anima mea, SA or TB

Nunc dimittis, SA

Canticles, Set II

SATB

Benedictus es Domina, Phos Hilaron,

Ecce Deus

In Time of Pestilence

SATB

Sing, My Soul, His Wondrous Love

SATB 

C.F. Peters

Three Choruses for Christmas

SATB

Three Motets

SATB, organ 

Three Poems of Baudelaire

SATB

Selected Recordings

Rorem: Works for Choir & Organ

(Includes Three Motets)

Harvard University Choir

Murray Forbes Somerville, conductor

Black Box Classics

Sing, My Soul

Concora

Richard Coffey, conductor

Albany Records

Ned Rorem b. 1923

Decades ago Time magazine called Ned Rorem “the world’s 

best composer of art songs” and few 

have challenged that judgment since. 

Though he has written exceptionally 

fine orchestral music (his suite Air 

Music won the 1976 Pulitzer Prize 

for music), his songs and choral 

pieces seem destined to remain his 

best-known legacy, in part because 

they are so performer-friendly, but 

most importantly because audiences find them full of striking and 

beautiful ideas.

He was born in Richmond, Indiana, then moved with his 

family to Chicago as a child. He began piano lessons and was 

enchanted by Debussy and Ravel. His later studies were at 

Northwestern University School of Music, The Curtis Institute, 

and The Juilliard School. Along the way, he served briefly as Virgil 

Thomson’s copyist and studied with Aaron Copland at Tanglewood. 

From 1949 to 1958 he lived in France, composing and writing 

his diaries. Uniquely, Rorem early on became just as famous for 

his literary efforts—which now total 14 books of music criticism, 

lectures, and his frank personal diaries—as for his music. His inner 

life has thus become perhaps the most public of any composer in 

history. 

His outstanding choral works, many with organ accompaniment, encompass a variety of anthems, canticles, motets, and hymns. 

Among them are “Shout the Glad Tidings,” a setting of an 1826 

hymn text, the Three Motets on texts by Gerard Manley Hopkins, 

and the beautiful anthem of peace, “Sing, My Soul, His Wondrous 

Love.” 

33
Selected Works

All works available from G. Schirmer, 

except as noted

A Free Song

Baritone, SATB, orchestra 

or piano 4-hands 

Carols of Death

SATB 

Theodore Presser Company

Casey at the Bat

Soloists, SATB, orchestra or piano 4-hands 

The Lord Has a Child

SATB or SSAA, piano 

Theodore Presser Company

Perceptions

SATB

Merton Music

Te Deum

SATB 

This Is Our Time

SATB, orchestra

Selected Recordings

Samuel Barber & William Schuman

(Includes Perceptions)

Joyful Company of Singers

Peter Broadbent, conductor

ASV Platinum

William Schuman 1910–1992

William Schuman ranks among the most honored 

and distinguished American 

composers, although most of his 

works are less well-known among 

the general public than those of his 

contemporaries Copland, Bernstein, 

and Barber. An exception to this is his 

New England Triptych, an orchestral 

work often paired on programs with 

the similarly conceived (but very 

different sounding) Three Places in New England by Charles Ives.

In 1943 he won the first Pulitzer Prize for music ever given. 

He was the first composer ever commissioned to write a work by 

the U.S. government. He was president of The Juilliard School for 

18 years, and president of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts 

for its first eight years. He was granted more than 20 honorary 

degrees in a lifetime as an educator, administrator, and composer, 

and had an enormous impact through his teaching and his tireless 

efforts to incorporate classical music into the lives of the American 

public.

Schuman’s catalogue is particularly rich in choral works. He 

was an acknowledged master of accompanied and a cappella choral 

music both complex and simple in scope (some pieces are written 

specifically for amateur singers). He made a point of emphasizing 

American poetry for his texts. His Carols of Death are settings of 

three powerful verses by Walt Whitman. On a lighter note, the 

choruses from Casey at the Bat (a 1976 “baseball cantata” adapted 

in turn from his 1953 opera The Mighty Casey) revel in the 

rollicking humorous verse of Ernest Lawrence Thayer, reflecting 

Schuman’s lifelong passion for baseball.

34

PHOTO © Jack Mitchell
Selected Works

All works available from ECS Publishing

A Christmas Garland

SATB or TTBB, brass, organ or orchestra

Carols and Lullabies: Christmas 

in the Southwest

SATB, SSAA, or TTBB, guitar, marimba, 

harp

Fum, Fum, Fum 

SATB, SSAA, or TTBB

Hymns for the Amusement of Children

SATB, piano 4-hands

Landscapes and Silly Songs

SATB

Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis

SATB div, organ

Three Mystical Carols

SATB, organ

Two Marian Carols

SATB

Selected Recordings

Nativitas 

(Includes Three Mystical Carols)

Kansas City Chorale

Charles Bruffy, conductor

Nimbus Records

Welcome Christmas: Carols &

Lullabies from Around the World

(Includes Carols and Lullabies)

VocalEssence Ensemble Singers

Philip Brunelle, conductor

Clarion Records

Conrad Susa b. 1935

Conrad Susa’s entire creative life has been centered on vocal and dramatic 

music. As a student he earned a B.F.A. 

from Carnegie Institute of Technology 

and an M.S. from The Juilliard School, 

where he studied with William Bergsma 

and Vincent Persichetti. He joined the 

composition department at the San 

Francisco Conservatory of Music in 1988, 

becoming its Chair in 2000. His musical 

language is strongly tonal with influence 

from Baroque counterpoint and polyphony plus many contemporary 

techniques and idioms drawn from popular music.

Susa has composed more than 100 works for theater, documentary films, and television. His first opera, Transformations, has become 

one of the most-performed American operas. Since then, he has 

written operas commissioned by San Francisco Opera, Minnesota 

Opera, and the American Guild of Organists, among others. 

With a background rich in theater, serving as Composer-inResidence for the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego and dramaturge 

at the Eugene O’Neill Center in Connecticut, it is no surprise that 

he is known for composing choral cycles that follow a story line or 

are linked thematically. Examples include whimsical cycles such as 

Landscapes and Silly Songs and Hymns for the Amusement of Children,

the latter an intriguing setting of texts by the 18th-century poet 

Christopher Smart. Many of his larger choral works use instrumental 

ensembles of all sorts.

Some of Susa’s most beloved compositions are for the Christmas 

season, such as A Christmas Garland, his popular Carols and Lullabies: 

Christmas in the Southwest, The Midnight Clear, and Three Mystical 

Carols.

35
Selected Works

All works available from ECS Publishing

Alleluia

SATB, SSAA, or TTBB

Americana

SATB, piano or orchestra

The Best of Rooms

SATB

Frostiana

SATB, piano, band, or orchestra

The Last Words of David

SATB or TTBB, piano, band, or orchestra 

The Peaceable Kingdom

SATB div

The Place of the Blest

SSA, piano or orchestra

Six Odes of Horace

TTBB

The Testament of Freedom

SATB or TTBB, piano, band, or orchestra 

Selected Recordings

Randall Thompson: The Light of Stars

Choral Arts Northwest

Richard Sparks, conductor

Gothic Records

Ye Shall Have a Song

(Includes The Peaceable Kingdom)

The American Repertory Singers

Leo Nestor, conductor

ARSIS Audio

Randall Thompson 1899–1984

Randall Thompson was the pre- eminent American choral composer 

of an earlier generation. His music, 

though grounded in traditional European 

rules, always seems very much of its time 

and place, perhaps because he frequently 

drew upon the early folk music of New 

England and the Appalachian region. 

He was a Yankee by heritage, born 

in New York City to a New England 

family. His father was an English teacher, 

and sent him to Harvard University where he studied choral music 

and composition. After graduation he had some private lessons with 

Ernest Bloch. He won the Prix de Rome in 1922. After studying 

abroad he returned to the U.S. and spent the rest of his career teaching at various universities, most notably at his alma mater Harvard 

from 1948 to 1965. Among his most famous students were Leonard 

Bernstein and Lukas Foss. 

Although Thompson wrote piano music and songs, chamber 

music and symphonies, and even a Biblical opera, it is for his exceptionally apt choral music that he has remained most admired. His 

“Alleluia,” written in 1940, quickly became a staple of church choirs 

in towns big and small and was recorded over a dozen times in the 

next few decades. Thompson seemed to understand by the 1950s 

that his style was no longer in vogue in academia; from then on he 

concentrated his efforts upon community, church, and college choir 

ensembles—and with enthusiasm, not regret.

Among his most famous larger works are The Peaceable Kingdom, 

The Testament of Freedom, and Frostiana, each of which evokes stirring 

elements of the American experience, whether in sound, structure or 

textual inspiration. 

36
Selected Works

All works available from G. Schirmer, 

except as noted

De profundis

Baritone, SATB, piano

Jerusalem, My Happy Home 

SATB, cello

Mass

Two-part chorus, percussion

My Shepherd Will Supply My Need

SATB, SSA, or SAB 

Alfred

The Nativity

Alto, tenor, bass, SATB, orchestra

Scenes from the Holy Infancy

Tenor, baritone, bass, SATB, piano

Seven Choruses from the Medea 

of Euripides

SATB, percussion ad lib (ed. Pinkham)

Tribulationes civitatum

SATB or TTBB 

Selected Recordings

Aaron Copland & Virgil Thomson

(Includes Mass)

Gloriae Dei Cantores

Elizabeth C. Patterson, conductor 

Paraclete Press

I Never Saw Another Butterfly: Songs 

of the Twentieth Century (Includes Seven 

Choruses from the Medea of Euripides)

San Francisco Girls Chorus

Sharon J. Paul, conductor

San Francisco Girls Chorus

Virgil Thomson 1896–1989

Virgil Thomson was one of America’s most stimulating, 

thoughtful, original, and long-lived 

composers and critics. He created one of 

the first really distinctive American operas 

(Four Saints in Three Acts), he composed 

distinguished film scores (The Louisiana 

Story won the Pulitzer Prize in 1949), he 

wrote witty and perceptive critiques of the 

American musical scene for many years, 

and he was still active into his 90s.

He was born in Kansas City, Missouri, into a morally strict family. 

He gravitated to music and was composing piano pieces with names 

like “The Chicago Fire” at age four. During study in France he came 

under the spell of Erik Satie and the Group of Six who overturned 

Romantic orthodoxy by mixing jazz and dance-hall tunes with serious 

compositional techniques. It was a perfect fit for Thomson, who 

found a unique style by blending this with his heritage of nostalgic 

middle-Americana.

His music is elegantly crafted, yet warm and human. It is richly 

evocative of an America half real, half imagined, but vividly recreated 

out of nostalgia and sincere affection. The range of Thomson’s choral 

music is wide. His 1934 Mass for two-part chorus and percussion 

is a dissonant, minimalist piece that seems avant-garde even today. 

Also in the 1930s he wrote incidental music for productions at John 

Houseman’s Phoenix Theater in New York. A planned staging of one 

Greek tragedy never came off, but Thomson saved his choral music as 

the concert piece Seven Choruses from the Medea of Euripides.

 Four Songs to Poems of Thomas Campion pays tribute to music 

techniques of Elizabethan England. More characteristic of the 

Thomson most of us know are the straightforwardly simple Hymns 

from the Old South, Variations on Sunday School Tunes, and “My 

Shepherd Will Supply My Need.”

37
Selected Works

All works available from Walton Music

Cloudburst

SATB div, piano, percussion

Five Hebrew Love Songs

SATB div, piano, violin or SA

i thank You God for most this amazing 

day

SATB div

Leonardo Dreams of His Flying 

Machine

SATB div

Lux Aurumque

SATB div or TTBB

Sleep

SATB div

Water Night

SATB div

When David Heard

SATB div

Selected Recordings

Eric Whitacre: Cloudburst 

and other Choral Works

Polyphony

Stephen Layton, conductor

Hyperion Records

Eric Whitacre: The Complete 

A Cappella Works, 1991-2001

Brigham Young University Singers

Ronald Staheli, conductor

ARSIS Audio

Eric Whitacre b. 1970

Eric Whitacre is the youngest of our group of choral composers. His 

incredible accomplishments before the age 

of 30 show that America’s choral tradition 

is alive and well and has a bright future. 

Born in 1970, Whitacre began his music 

studies at the University of Nevada and 

later graduated from The Juilliard School 

where he studied composition with both 

John Corigliano and David Diamond. 

Although he has composed a good 

deal for wind band, orchestra, and film, Whitacre is principally 

known for his choral works. The Philadelphia Inquirer has proclaimed 

him “the hottest thing in choral music.” He has been Composerin-Residence with the Pacific Chorale in California and has served 

as guest conductor for numerous choral ensembles across the U.S. 

and in Europe, Asia, and Australia. His first stage work, the “opera 

electronica” Paradise Lost, premiered in 2004; it combines elements of 

trance, electronica, and traditional classical and operatic styles.

Five Hebrew Love Songs are settings of poems by Whitacre’s wife 

Hila Plitmann, whom he met at Juilliard. Other choral works have 

texts from an engaging array of voices: e. e. cummings, Edward Esch, 

James Joyce, Jalal al-Din Rumi, Emily Dickinson, Federico García 

Lorca, Edmund Waller, and the Bible. 

One of Whitacre’s favorite writers is the Mexican poet Octavio 

Paz and his setting of “Water Night” as translated by Muriel Rukeyser 

has become one of his most popular works with high school and 

college choirs. The Los Angeles Times has called “Cloudburst,” also to 

an Octavio Paz poem, “a work of unearthly beauty and imagination.”

Another well-known piece, “Sleep,” is a setting of a poem by 

Charles Anthony Silvestri. It is virtually unique in that, unlike most 

vocal and choral works, the music was composed first and the poem 

later written to fit the music.

38
39

American Masterpieces: Choral Music

Image Credits

Page 5: Dana Gioia, photograph by Vance Jacobs.

Page 6: Philip Brunelle, photograph by Tom Berthiaume.

Page 7: America Sings! concert presented by the National Endowment for the Arts and Chorus 

America on June 11, 2006. Photo by Jim Saah.

Page 8: America Sings! concert presented by the National Endowment for the Arts and Chorus 

America on June 11, 2006. Photo by Jim Saah.

Page 11: Dominick Argento, photograph by Tom Berthiaume.

Page 12: Samuel Barber, photograph courtesy of G. Schirmer, Inc./Associated Music Publishers.

Page 13: Leonard Bernstein, photography by Marion S. Trikosko, from the U.S. News & World 

Report Magazine Photograph Collection, courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and 

Photographs Division.

Page 14: Paul Revere engraving, frontispiece, The New-England Psalm-Singer, 1770.

Page 15: William Bolcom, photograph by Katryn Conlin.

Page 16: Harry T. Burleigh, photograph by Thomas Coke Knight, from the New York WorldTelegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection, courtesy of the Library of 

Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Page 17: Chen Yi, photograph by Jim Hair, © Jim Hair.

Page 18: Aaron Copland, photograph by John Ardoin, courtesy of Boosey & Hawkes.

Page 19: Brent Michael Davids, photograph courtesy of Brent Michael Davids.

Page 20: William Dawson, photograph courtesy of the Congressional Portrait Collection, Library 

of Congress.

Page 21: R. Nathaniel Dett, photograph public domain.

Page 22: Stephen Foster, painting by A.B. Leisser, Pittsburgh, PA (copy of portrait by Clough), 

courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Page 24: Moses Hogan, photograph used by permission of Hal Leonard Corporation.

Page 25: Charles Ives, photograph by Halley Erskine, from MSS 14, The Charles Ives Papers, 

courtesy Irving S. Gilmore Music Library of Yale University. 

Page 26: Aaron Jay Kernis, photograph by Kim Pluti for Parallel Productions.

Page 27: Libby Larsen, photograph by Ann Marsden.

Page 28: Morten Lauridsen, photograph by Steven Heller.

Page 29: Norman Luboff, photograph used by permission of Walton Music Corporation.

Page 30: Gian Carlo Menotti, photograph by Carl Van Vechten, courtesy of the Library of 

Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Page 31: Alice Parker, photograph by Roy Lewis; Robert Shaw, photograph courtesy of the 

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

Page 32: Stephen Paulus, photograph courtesy of Stephen Paulus.

Page 33: Ned Rorem, photograph by R. Benchley, courtesy of Boosey & Hawkes.

Page 34: William Schuman, photograph by Jack Mitchell, © Jack Mitchell.

Page 35: Conrad Susa, photograph by Ronald Chase, courtesy of ECS Publishing, Boston, Mass.

Page 36: Randall Thompson, photograph courtesy of ECS Publishing, Boston, Mass.

Page 37: Virgil Thomson, photograph courtesy of G. Schirmer, Inc./Associated Music Publishers.

Page 38: Eric Whitacre, photograph by Craig Thompson.
A PUBLICATION OF THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT

FOR THE ARTS AND CHORUS AMERICA