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The Cantata Text, Composer's Comments,
and a MIDI sample (used by permission)
1. Prologue (John 1: 1, 4-5, 14)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God.
In Him was life, and the life was the light of all.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.
2. All Flesh Is Grass (1 Peter 1: 24-25; Mass text)
| "The various movements are attempts to characterize,
through music, various aspects of the human/God, God/human relationship." |
All flesh is grass, and its glory as the flow'r of grass;
the grass withers and the flow'r fades,
but the word of the Lord endures forever.
Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison.
Kyrie eleison. Lord, have mercy on my soul.
3. O Be Joyful (Psalm 100: 1-2)
O be joyful in the Lord, serve the Lord with gladness.
Come before God with a song.
4. The Call (Isaiah 49: 1, 5; George Herbert, 1593-1632)
The Lord called me from the womb,
from the body of my mother he named my name.
I am honored in the eyes of the Lord,
and God has become my strength.
| "Awe and wonder, unworthiness and doubt, mercy and
forgiveness, love, joy, and peace, are all wrapped together in this piece,
as indeed these elements are wrapped together in our daily lives." |
Come, my way, my truth, my life:
Such a way as gives us breath;
Such a truth as ends all strife;
Such a life as conquers death.
Come, my light, my feast, my strength:
Such a light as shows a feast;
Such a feast that mends in length;
Such a strength as makes his guest.
Come, my joy, my love, my heart:
Such a joy as none can move;
Such a love as none can part;
Such a heart as joys in love.
5. Lament (George MacDonald, 1824-1905, from Diary of
an Old Soul)
I to myself have neither pow'r, nor worth, patience, nor love, nor anything
right good.
My soul is a poor land, plenteous in dearth.
Here blades of grass, there a small herb, for food,
a nothing that would be something, if it could.
But if obedience in me grow I shall one day be better, better than I know.
6. Agnus Dei (Mass text)
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccatta mundi, miserere.
7. I Am the Bread of Life (John 6: 35, 51)
| "The thematic and artistic credo of this work, which
serves both as the title overall and of the central movement - a
new Creation - is representative of the composer's belief that
the unwrapping of all these elements in the progression of our lives -
sometimes with joy, sometimes with pain - is worth the effort." |
I am the bread of life.
Who so comes to me shall never hunger,
and who so believes in me shall never thirst.
I am the living bread from heaven.
If you eat this bread you shall live forever.
8. A New Creation (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Listen to a MIDI version of this movement
Therefore, whoever is in Christ is a new creation.
The old has passed away; you are a new creation.
Behold the new has come! Alleluia.
9. The Greatest of These Is Love (1 Corinthians 13: 1-2,
4-8)
If I speak in tongues of men and angels, but have not love,
I am a noisy gong, or a clanging cymbal;
and if I have prophetic pow'rs, and understand all mystery, all knowledge,
and if I have faith to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
Love is patient and kind;
love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude;
love does not insist on its own way;
love does not rejoice in the wrong, but rejoices in the right.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all
things.
Love never ends.
10. Hymn (Song of Songs 8: 6-7)
Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love
is strong as death.
Many waters cannot quench love; neither can the floods drown it.
11. The Spirit Helps Us (Romans 8: 26-27; Ezekiel 36:
26, 28)
The spirit helps us in our weakness, for we know not how to pray.
The spirit pleads for us, with sighs too deep for words;
and God, who searches us, knows the mind of the spirit.
A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you.
You shall be my people, and I shall be your God.
12. Praise the Lord (Psalm 150; Luke 2: 29-32; Mass text)
| "That the piece is written in praise of God, whomever
he and/or she night be, and in whatever form that God takes for each individual,
seems to me to be essential to the understanding of the work." |
Praise the Lord;
praise him in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty firmament;
praise him for his mighty deeds;
praise him for his greatness.
Praise him with a trumpet sound;
praise him with harp and lute and timbrel and dance.
Praise him with strings and pipe;
praise him, laud him;
praise him with sounding cymbal;
praise him with loud clashing cymbal.
Let ev'ry thing that has life praise the Lord!
Alleluia.
Lord, now let thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word,
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared for all
people.
A light to lighten the Gentiles, a light to thy servant Israel,
to the glory of thy people (servant) Israel.
Dons nobis pacem.
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