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)

  1. 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.

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. 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

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