(Each week we look at one or two of the best choral works posted in the Composition Showcase here on ChoralNet. This is where we store a treasure trove of works that your choirs will love to sing and your audiences will love to hear.)
Where Go the Boats by Dale Trumbore for SATB a cappella (Click here for PDF and here for AUDIO) Organ accompaniment edition available.
Level: Advanced High School or Higher
Uses: General Concert Use
Program Themes: Loss and Gain, Boats, Rivers, Childhood, Trees
This Piece Would Program Well With: Deep River arr. Karen P. Thomas available from JWPepper and SheetMusicPlus
This is yet another stellar work by Dale Trumbore. If you haven’t programmed her works this would be a great place to start. The harmonies are rich with dissonances approached largely by step. The text by Robert Louis Stevenson lends itself to a wide variety of themes. The goose bump ending has a child longing for his toy boats that were lost in the river, yet hoping that some other child downstream will find them and bring them ashore. This setting addresses the surface theme of the loss of a child’s toys but is a deeper allegory of the loss of a lover that will be loved by someone else. Brilliant!
This piece is available from the composer’s website: http://daletrumbore.com/Composer/purchase.html
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.