Songs my Heart has Taught Me

Vocal score

Forces or Category: SATB & piano

for SATB and piano
In this passionate four-movement work, composer Bob Chilcott and lyricist Delphine Chalmers explore themes of inclusivity, ...

Songs my Heart has Taught Me

Vocal score

Description

for SATB and piano
In this passionate four-movement work, composer Bob Chilcott and lyricist Delphine Chalmers explore themes of inclusivity, identity, and unity. The middle movements, 'Harmony' and 'Rhythm', have strong grooves and rhythmic drive, while the outer movements, 'Unison' and 'Resolution', are steadfast and uplifting. Songs my Heart has Taught Me brings singers and audience together in a celebration of all that unites us.

Programme Notes:

It was a privilege and an honour to be invited to write the Raymond Brock Memorial Commission for the ACDA National Conference in Dallas in 2021. I was asked to write something that embraced certain aspects of diversity: a rich, beautiful, and complex subject. I asked a brilliant young poet, Delphine Chalmers, to come on this journey with me to create this piece. As the National Conference ended up taking place virtually, this piece was first performed by the BBC Singers with pianist Anna Tilbrook, in a video recording to be broadcast to delegates.
I have learnt so much from a life of extensive travel, through music and collaboration with many different people, but the overriding thing is that, as Maya Angelou says in her great poem 'Human Family', 'We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike'. Throughout life, music has been my barometer; it has helped me to understand so many things and so many people, and I hold this deep in my heart, hence the title Songs my Heart has Taught Me. Delphine and I decided to use musical concepts as titles for the four songs that make up the work, exploring how these can help us to understand commonality.
The first song, 'Unison', is an anthem to unity that ends with the powerful line, 'The song of the future and the song of our souls are in unison'. 'Harmony', written in a more fluid, musical-theatre style, touches on peoples need to be accepted, in a way like a note in a chord, in such a way that we can feel embraced, as Delphine writes so eloquently: 'In the song of shared acceptance lies an inner harmony'. The third song, 'Rhythm', is a spiky piece with a beat that tells of lifes rhythm, of the pulse that the living all share, and it urges us to seize the day. Finally, in 'Resolution', the melody is spun by the singers over a simple, recurring chord structure. The poetic refrain is strongly influenced by the words of the 14th-century female mystic, Julian of Norwich: 'All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well'. The piece ends quietly and tonally, but of course does not completely resolve. That is the story of life.
Bob Chilcott

Songs my Heart has Taught Me

Vocal score

Bob Chilcott

Songs my Heart has Taught Me

Vocal score

Bob Chilcott

Composer Information

Bob Chilcott (b.1955)

Bob Chilcott has become one of the world's most widely performed composers and arrangers of choral music. His compositional output reflects his wide taste in music styles and his commitment to writing music that is both singable and communicative. He has been involved in choral music most of his life he was a chorister and then a choral scholar in the choir of King's College, Cambridge, and was a member of the British vocal group The King's Singers for whom he made a number of popular arrangements of well-known songs from all genres. As well as being a full-time composer he is also a highly acclaimed choral conductor. He has been privileged to conduct many choirs all over the world. He is Principal Guest Conductor of The BBC Singers and in 2019 he was appointed Principal Conductor of Birmingham University Singers. His music has been widely recorded by many choirs and groups including The King's Singers, Tenebrae, and The BBC Singers.

Bob Chilcott's website