Fort Wayne Children’s Choir
Concert Choir, Chamber Singers, and Youth Chorale
Adam Schweyer, timpani
For more information on our staff: Fort Wayne Children’s Choir Staff
Texts
Bob Chilcott – Look to This Day! (Concert)
New ev’ry morning is the love,
Our wakening and uprising prove;
Through sleep and darkness safely brought,
Restored to life and power, and thought!
Look to this day!
Day arises from its sleep,
Day wakes up with the dawning light.
Also you must arise, also you must awake,
Together with the day which comes.
You, whose day it is, make it beautiful.
Get out your rainbow colours,
So it will be beautiful.
Look to this day!
For today well-lived,
Makes ev’ry yesterday a dream of happiness,
Ev’ry tomorrow a vision of hope:
So look to this day!
Jean Berger – The Eyes of All Wait upon Thee (Chamber)
The eyes of all wait upon thee;
And thou givest them their meat in due season.
Thou openest thine hand
And satisfied the desire of ev’ry living thing.
Felix Mendelssohn – There Shall a Star Come out of Jacob (Chamber)
There shall a star come out of Jacob,
And a sceptre shall rise out of Israel,
And dash in pieces
Princes and nations,
How brightly beams the morning star
What sudden radiance from afar
With light and comfort glowing
Thy Word, O Lord,
Radiance darting, truth imparting,
gives salvation;
Thine be praise and adoration.
Eric William Barnum – The Sweetheart of the Sun (YC)
She stood so fair amid the corn (golden light)
Clasp’d by the golden light of morn
Like the sweetheart of the sun
Who many a glowing kiss had won
On her cheek an autumn flush
Deeply ripen’d (such a blush was born)
In the midst of brown was
Like red poppies grown with corn
Round her eyes her tresses fell
Which were blackest none could tell
Lashes veil’d a light
That had else been all too bright
And her hat with shady brim
Made her tressy forehead dim
Thus she stood amid the stooks
Praising God with sweetest looks
Alleluia!
Sure, I said, Where I reap thou shoulds’t but glean,
Like the sweetheart of the sun
Lay thy sheaf a-down and come
Share my harvest and my home.
Bob Chilcott – Five Days that Changed the World (Concert + YC)
- Thursday, 29th March, 1455: The Invention of the Printing Press
The quick brown fox. Quick brown fox.
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
I saw them walking like footprints in the snow.
Saw them walking into houses all over the world.
Open the door of the eye and let them in.
I saw each letter. Saw each letter like a person.
Z was lonely and E was everyone’s friend.
I watched them gather together into words.
I knew if I took the letters one by one.
Knew if I held them tight in forty-two lines.
They could speak to everyone everywhere.
In the beginning there were footprints over the page.
The footprints of a fox who jumps.
Into your eye and over the lazy dog.
- Friday, 1st August, 1834: The Abolition of Slavery
Sometimes a piece of paper
A piece of white paper
Can set a person free.
Just a few words
A few words written in black ink
On white paper
Can set a nation free.
Sometimes one person
One good person
Can set a nation free.
Just a few words
A few words written on the open page
Of the human heart
Can set a people free.
Give me the good words.
Make me the right person.
Give me a piece of paper to set me free.
Pure words written
On my open heart.
Just a few words
Can set me free.
- Monday, 14th December, 1903: The First Powered Flight
A thought can learn to fly if you give it wings.
I said to Orville Perhaps.
Maybe if perhaps we might possibly try.
And we did. And it was. Difficult.
Below us the ground was green and heavy with failure.
Ready to break our fall.
But a thought will fly sometimes if you give it wings.
I said to Wilbur Why not?
Most everything that could went wrong before.
But it pulled us up in the end.
We said to each other Let’s toss for who goes first.
And we did. And it was. Glorious.
We carried it back to the top of Kill Devil Hill.
How many times? I forget.
But we did and it was and it is and there you have it.
Sometimes a dream will fly.
- Friday, 28th September 1928: The Discovery of Penicillin
Green/blue. It was green/blue.
I happened upon it. Stumbled across it.
It wasn’t supposed to be there but there it was.
Sometimes you find what you’re looking for
Where you never thought it would be.
Thrown away. It was nearly thrown away.
I clettered the dishes. Washed the pots.
I thought there was something wrong but it turned out right.
Sometimes where you never thought it would be
There’s what you’ve been looking for all along.
Holiday. Just back from holiday.
It was meant to be. Serendipity.
What went wrong had gone as right as rain.
Sometimes what you’re looking for will find you.
Sometimes what seems wrong was right all along.
Blue/green. It was blue/green.
I hope you find what you’re looking for.
Hope what you’re looking for finds you.
- Wednesday, 12th April, 1961: The First Man in Space:
I saw how beautiful our planet is
17,000 miles an hour
They thought I might go mad
I might go mad
But I saw the face
The face of God
The son of a carpenter circling
‘Round the Earth
I saw how beautiful our planet is
April 12th, 1961
Stars are the alphabet
The alphabet of God
108 minutes
Can it be that you have come from outer space?
Well yes, and I’ve seen something beautiful
Keep this beauty safe
And let it grow, let it grow
Stars are the smile of God
His face was the Earth looking back
520 people
Have seen how beautiful
Beautiful it is
Larry Farrow (Harry Belafonte) – Turn the World Around (Combined)
We come from the fire
Living in the fire
Go back to the fire
Turn the world around
We come from the water
Living in the water
Go back to the water
Turn the world around
We come from the mountain
Living on the mountain
Go back to the mountain
Turn the world around
Oh, oh so is life
Ah, ah, so is life
Do you know who I am?
Do I know who you are?
See we one another clearly
Do we know who we are?
Water make the river
River wash the mountain
Fire make the sunlight
Turn the world around
Heart is of the river
Body is the mountain
Spirit is the sunlight
Turn the world around
We are of the spirit
Truly of the spirit
Only can the spirit
Turn the world around
Do you know who I am?
Do I know who you are?
See we one another clearly
Do we know who we are?
Oh, oh, so is life
A ba tee wah ha, so is life
Oh, oh, so is life
A ba tee wah ha, so is life