SATB choir. 4 ½ mins.
Recording courtesy of SACRA/PROFANA.
A choral setting of text adapted from an essay by John Muir about Crescent Meadow in Sequoia National Park.
Perusal Score
Performance score available for purchase. Please direct inquiries to Nell Shaw Cohen at nell@nellshawcohen.com.
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TEXT
There lay the grassy, flowery lawn,
three fourths of a mile long,
smoothly outspread,
basking in mellow autumn light.
Then up spring the mighty walls of verdure
three hundred feet high,
the brown fluted pillars so thick and tall and strong
they seem fit to uphold the sky.
And as I gazed, every color seemed to deepen and glow
while every tree seemed religious
and conscious of the presence of God, of God.
A free man revels in a scene like this and time goes by unmeasured.
Adapted by Nell Shaw Cohen from “Our National Parks” (1901) by John Muir.
Performance History
- SACRA/PROFANA, Juan Carlos Acosta, conductor, St. Mark’s United Methodist Church, San Diego, CA, 4/20/24.
- SACRA/PROFANA, Juan Carlos Acosta, conductor, Fallbrook Mission Theater, Fallbrook, CA, 3/27/22.
- New Mexico Highlands University Concert Choir, André García-Nuthmann, conductor, New Mexico Highlands University, Ilfeld Auditorium, Las Vegas, NM, 4/23/17.