Soprano and Piano
Text: Biblical (English)
Duration: ca. 2.5 minutes
Publisher: C. F. Peters Corporation, Edition Peters 67784
My relatively cheerful and somewhat bent setting of this familiar text was composed at the request of soprano Joan Peterson, one of the winners of the Center for Contemporary Opera’s International Opera Singers Competition. She and pianist David Holkeboer gave the piece its first performance on the Competition Winners’ Recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall on March 13, 1996.
Basically, this piece just chugs along, particularly the somewhat “neoclassic” piano part, which must throughout almost the entire piece adhere to its initial marking: placidamente; a light touch is essential. Only occasionally do a few threatening clouds roll in, in places where you would likely expect them (“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me,” for example), but they move on just as quickly as they arrived, with no ill effects.