Peace of Wild Things, The
- Composer: Joan Szymko
- Publisher: Santa Barbara Music Publishing
- Cat No: SBMP 561
- Canadian Work: No
- Duration: 5:00
- Sample Track:
Program Notes:
The exquisite words of American man of letters, academic, cultural and economic critic, and farmer, Wendell Berry are beautifully amplified through this original 2004 composition by Portland-based composer Szymko.
Conductor Notes:
This beautiful work speaks compellingly to choir and audience in the unfolding of Berry’s poem. Since performing it as a massed choir selected at our Tapestry International Celebration of Women’s Choirs in 2012, we have gone on to include this in several concerts and tours. I would not program it where the piano is not in excellent shape, as the rich piano tone lives and supports the tone frequently in the low register.
References:
This lists any discs, concerts or collections where this piece is included.
Recordings
Collections:
Concerts:
Text:
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.