Texts, Translations & Notes

TO YOU, O GOD, ALL CREATURES SING

To you, O God, all creatures sing,
and all creation, everything
sings your praises, alleluia!
Your burning sun with golden beam,
your silver moon with softer gleam
sing your praises, alleluia!

Your wind that blows the tempest by,
your clouds that sail across the sky
sing your praises, alleluia!
Your morning rises with a song,
and lights of evening sing along,
sing your praises, alleluia!

Your flowing waters, crystal clear,
make melodies for you to hear,
sing your praises, alleluia!
Your fire, bountiful and bright,
remembering your warmth and light,
sings your praises, alleluia!

Now let all things their creator bless,
and worship God in humbleness,
O praise God! Alleluia!
Praise the Creator, praise the Son,
and praise the Spirit, three in one!
O praise God! Alleluia!

• Francis of Assisi (1225), adap. by Miriam Therese Winter (1993)

Composer’s Note:
This setting of the well-loved hymn tune Lasst Uns Erfreuen was composed for the debut performance of my newly formed choir, Evergreen Ensemble, in April of 2023. Our inaugural concert was centered on climate and creation care, and I knew I wanted to include a setting of All Creatures of Our God and King, which has always been a favorite hymn of mine. As I perused the options available I didn't find anything that felt quite like the “right fit.” I had recently come across this lovely adaptation of the text by Sr. Miriam Therese Winter that uses more inclusive language, but could not find any choral arrangements of her version. Ultimately I decided to try my hand at creating my own arrangement, starting with inspiration from a simple and minimalist style of folk/pop accompaniment that makes use of a pedal or ostinato pitch played as a pulse, and then playing chord changes around it. I sat at the piano and accompanied myself with chord voicings I liked, humming the melody as I played, and the music began to emerge. From there I continued connecting the music to this evocative text, and then tried to write something that I thought I and others would genuinely enjoy singing. I was pleased to find that I ended up with a piece that I think embodies the joy and gratitude that I feel exist at the heart of these words —David Hendrix

CHRISTINA’S BIRDS

1 - The Lucky Linnet
A linnet in a gilded cage, - 
A linnet on a bough, - 
In frosty winter one might doubt 
Which bird is luckier now. 
But let the trees burst out in leaf, 
And nests be on the bough, 
Which linnet is the luckier bird, 
Oh who could doubt it now? 

2 - Wise Ones
Wisest of sparrows that sparrow which sitteth alone
Perched on the housetop, its own upper chamber, for nest;
Wisest of swallows that swallow which timely has flown
Over the turbulent sea to the land of its rest:
Wisest of sparrows and swallows, if I were as wise!

Wisest of spirits that spirit which dwelleth apart
Hid in the Presence of God for a chapel and nest,
Sending a wish and a will and a passionate heart
Over the eddy of life to that Presence in rest:
Seated alone and in peace till God bids it arise.

3 - The Nightingale
When a mounting skylark sings 
In the sunlit summer morn, 
I know that heaven is up on high, 
And on earth are fields of corn. 
But when a nightingale sings 
In the moonlit summer even, 
I know not if earth is merely earth, 
Only that heaven is heaven.

• Christina Rosetti (1830-1894)

Composer’s Note:
Christina’s Birds is a trio of short madrigals on texts by Christina Rossetti (1830 - 94). The first, “The Lucky Linnet,” asks which of two linnets is really the lucky one: she who avoids the chilly winds of winter, warm in her golden cage, or she who suffers the bitter gales to greet spring with her new chicks. In the second, “Wise Ones,” Christina longs for the wisdom she observes in the sparrows and swallows around her. As the piece unfolds in varying triple meters, her prayer is answered with a call to dwell apart, in the presence of God, until bidden to “arise.” Finally, we catch our breath at the beauty of the Nightingale’s wordless song and realize that there are no things that are merely “earthly” things. All are infused with the heavenly. —Donna Loomis

AND THE SWALLOW

How beloved is your dwelling place 
O lord of hosts my soul yearns
My heart and my flesh cry out
The sparrow found a house
And the swallow, her nest
Where she may raise her young
They pass through the valley of Bakka
They make it a place of springs
The autumn rains also cover it with pools

• From Psalm 84
  

GOD’S GRANDEUR

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights o" the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

• Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)

Composer’s Note:
God’s Grandeur, one of a number of “holy sonnets” by Irish Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, is a stirring ode infused with a spirit of “panentheism”—the belief that the divine intersects with every part of creation, fully inhabiting it, yet also transcending it. It is also a poem about our own human insensitivity to this mysterious indwelling, and our subsequent misuse and abuse of creation. Composed during the fall of 2022/winter of 2023 for James Franklin and the East Carolina University Chamber Singers, my setting of Hopkins’ masterful text highlights the poet’s characteristic use of what he referred to as “sprung rhythm”, a poetic cadence that imitates the rhythms of natural speech. Packed with densely interlocking stress patterns and driving irregular rhythms, the opening section bristles with energy, conjuring up both the irrepressible divine/creative spirit in the world and our own equally irrepressible human/destructive spirit at work within it. The second, more lyrical, section serves as a contrast to the first, giving a sense of the divine presence in nature as something profound, immense, slow-moving, and inexhaustible. The final section brings back the irregular rhythms of the opening, but this time in a major mode and with a dancing rather than driving energy. Taken all together, God’s Grandeur oers the hope that, though darkness may seem to be all about us, a new morning for creation may yet dawn, provided we humans learn to cherish the world we have been given and learn to recognize its inherent sacredness. —Benedict Sheehan

LET EVENING COME

Let the light of late afternoon
shine through chinks in the barn, 
moving up the bales as the sun moves down.

Let the cricket take up chafing
as a woman takes up her needles
and her yarn. Let evening come.

Let dew collect on the hoe abandoned
in long grass. Let the stars appear
and the moon disclose her silver horn.

Let the fox go back to its sandy den.
Let the wind die down. Let the shed
go black inside. Let evening come.

To the bottle in the ditch, to the scoop
in the oats, to air in the lung
let evening come.

Let it come, as it will, and don’t
be afraid. God does not leave us
comfortless, so let evening come.

• Jane Kenyon (1947-1995)

Composer’s Note:
New Hampshire’s poet laureate at the time of her untimely death at age forty-seven, Jane Kenyon explored the depths of the inner psyche, particularly with regard to her own battle against depression. My own father, Donald Sheehan—who was a poet and writer himself, as well as someone who struggled with depression—was a close personal friend of Kenyon’s. He spent time with her frequently during the last months of her life and was at her bedside when she passed away in 1995, when I was fifteen. My setting of Kenyon’s work draws on four poems that I feel capture different stages of a woman’s life as she might look back on them in her last days, as well as an attempt to piece together for myself an image of what her experience might have been like. Let Evening Come is the fourth and final song of the cycle, and it closes out the cycle with a winding, chant-like hymn of acceptance. It is a song about letting happen what will happen, and choosing not be afraid. In the closing passages, on the text “God does not leave us comfortless,” a hint of the intensity of the first song returns, with piano and voice rushing up together into the upper register. But then the tension subsides, the burden of living is set down, and the song softly winds to a close on a D-G open fifth. —Benedict Sheehan

ALL CREATURES LAMENT

All creatures of our God and King,
Lift up your voices, let them ring.
Fill the earth with lamentation!
Cry out abuses of our pow’r;
Tell what we lose with every hour
To our greed and depredation.
Lord, have mercy;
Christ, have mercy;
Lord, have mercy.

All creatures winging in the air,
Cry out the failures of our care.
Fill the sky with lamentation!
Shout through the clouds of smoke and ash,
Choked with the fumes of poison gas,
Tell us of our degradation.
Lord, have mercy;
Christ, have mercy;
Lord, have mercy.

All creatures hidden in the seas,
Lift up your anguished prayers and pleas.
Fill the sea with lamentation!
Teach us to see your wonders now.
Help us to make a holy vow
Here to halt your devastation.
Lord, have mercy;
Christ, have mercy;
Lord, have mercy.

All creatures dwelling in the land,
Join as we lift each heart and hand.
Fill the world with lamentation!
Mourn the destruction of our home;
Weep with the fear of worse to come.
Hear the groans of all creation:
Lord, have mercy;
Christ, have mercy;
Lord, have mercy.

• Paul Zach, Kate Bluett, Isaac Wardell

Composer’s Note:
Based on a searing text by CCM artists Paul Zach, Kate Bluett, and Isaac Wardell, All Creatures Lament: Hymn for a Suffering Planet reimagines the hymn All Creatures of our God and King as a visceral outcry against the environmental destruction that has been—and is being—wrought by humankind. Each verse focuses on an area of creation that we as humans have injured or defiled—the air, the seas, the land—painting a vivid picture of how we have neglected our duty to care for them, but each time culminating in an impassioned cry of “Lord, have mercy” in the hope that there may yet be a remedy. Mixing American folk and hymn-style choral writing with modes drawn from Eastern chant, my setting of this text presents listeners with the stark reality of what we as a society and as a species now face today, but it also gives us all a chance to transform our fear, shame, and anger into an act of corporate prayer and artistry. If there is to be hope for our suffering planet and for us who live on it, I believe it will come from a renewed understanding of how we as humans can strive together for beauty. I offer All Creatures Lament: Hymn for a Suffering Planet as an image of what that might look like. —Benedict Sheehan

WASH ME THROUGHLY

Wash me throughly from my wickedness: and cleanse me from my sin.
Have mercy upon me, O God, after thy great goodness:
For I acknowledge my faults: and my sin is ever before me.
Thou shalt make me hear of joy and gladness: that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
Have mercy upon me, O God, after thy great goodness:
Make me a clean heart, O God: and renew a right spirit within me.
Thou shalt open my lips, O Lord: and my mouth shall shew thy praise.

• From Psalm 51, Book Of Common Prayer

Composer’s Note:
Canon Michael McCarthy, Washington National Cathedral, commissioned the work for a concert organized with different settings of the Miserere Mei, Deus, Psalm 51. This text and the Gregorio Allegri setting have meant a great deal to me. When I entered St. Thomas Church for the first time for my choirboy audition in 1977, the choir was practicing the Miserere. My church choir in Plainfield performed the work before but I had never heard it sound so beautiful. I immediately started crying, my parents were confused, I was confused too. At the time I thought that I had heard God’s music. —Trevor Weston

AWIT SA PANGINOON - SONG FOR THE LORD

O Panginoon kita’y pinupuri
O Lord to you, I praise
Kita’y pinupuri’t ako’y iniligtas.
I praise you and I am saved.
Mula sa libingan daigdig ng patay
From the grave world of the dead
Hinango mo ako’t muling binuhay.
You lifted me and gave me life.
Purihin si Yaweh.
Praise Jehovah.
Siya ay awitan ng lahat ng mga hinirang.
To him shall sing praise, all the beloved.
Inyong gunitain ang gawa ng Diyos na mahal
Remember the works of the Holy Lord
Ang kanyang ginawa ay alalahanin at pasalamatan.
The works that he did is to be remembered and appreciated.
Hindi nagtatagal yaong kanyang galit,
Does not last for a long time, that of his anger,
At ang kabutihan Niya’y walang wakas.
And the goodness of Him has no end.
Mula sa libingan daigdig ng patay
From the grave world of the dead
Hinango mo ako’t muling binuhay.
You lifted me and gave me life.
Ang abang may hapis at tigmak sa luha sa buong magdamag
The poor with sorrow and drenched with tears throughout the night
Sa bukang-liwayway ay wala ng lungkot,
In the breaking of dawn, there is no more sadness,
Kapalit ay galak.
In exchange is joy.

• From Psalm 30: 1-3

VATER UNSER - OUR FATHER

Vater unser im Himmel,
Our Father who art in heaven,
Geheiligt werde Dein Name.
Hallowed be thy name.
Dein Reich komme.
Thy kingdom come,
Dein Wille geschehe,
Thy will be done
Wie im Himmel so auf Erden.
On earth as it is in heaven.
Unser tägliches Brot gib uns heute.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Und vergib uns unsere Schuld,
And forgive us our trespasses,
Wie auch wir vergeben unseren Schuldigern.
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
Und führe uns nicht in Versuchung,
And lead us not into temptation,
Sondern erlöse uns von dem Bösen. 
But deliver us from evil.

IN THE BEGINNING

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day.

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

• Genesis 1:1-2:7

ALL CREATURES OF OUR GOD AND KING

All creatures of our God and King,
Lift up your voices, let them ring,
Alleluia! Alleluia!
O burning sun with golden beam,
And silver moon with softer gleam,
Sing praises! Sing praises!
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.

Dear mother earth, who day by day,
Unfoldest blessings on our way,
Sing praises! Alleluia!
The flow’rs and fruits that in thee grow,
God’s glory let them also show!
Sing praises! Sing praises!
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.

All people who, with wounded heart,
In love and mercy share your art,
Sing praises! Alleluia!
Let fire be kindled through your songs,
Let harmony redress all wrongs,
O sing ye! O sing ye!
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.

• Verses 1 + 2 by Francis of Assisi (1225), adap. William Henry Draper (1919); Verse 3 by Benedict Sheehan (2024)

IN THE WONDROUS BLENDING OF SOUNDS

In the wondrous blending of sounds it is thy call we hear. In the harmony of many voices, in the sublime beauty of music, in the glory of the works of great composers, thou art there showing us the threshold of the paradise that is to come. All true beauty has the power to draw the soul towards thee, and to make it sing in ecstasy: Alleluia!

• Tryphon Turkestanov, trans. John Mikitish

Composer’s Note:
The central movement of Akathist: An Oratorio (2023), and the quiet beating heart of my own personal musical vision. A four-bar ostinato based on a Plainchant melody undergirds a gently ornamented vocal line inspired by South African folk music. When humans can look beyond their differences and collaborate on creating beauty—even if only for a moment—the world can feel like a paradise. —Benedict Sheehan