(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.)
The Future of Life by Pamela J. Marshall for SATB, trombone and piano (Click here for PDF and here for AUDIO)
Level: High School or Higher
Uses: General Concert Use
Program Themes: Spring, Life, End of the World, Bees
This is a major work lasting about 30 minutes. It would program well Rejoice in the Lamb by Benjamin Britten available from JWPEPPER® and sheet music plus
As I searched the Composition Showcase for a piece appropriate for May Day, I found this frighteningly prophetic work. It made me ask myself how many springs our planet has left before our changing climate prevents the renewal of life we seek each year. The Future of Life is drawn in part from a book by Edward O. Wilson with the same name. Texts speak to the need to pay now or pay more later to help save the biodiversity of planet Earth. The most chilling text speaks to the difficulty humans will have in bioengineering life to fill the missing void of natural creatures. The speaker bequeaths to the generation that will inherit the wounded world of our creation an audio visual library of the many beautiful things that once lived.
The trombone adds a delightfully affective earthiness to the composition that I found to be quite captivating.
This piece is available from the composer’s website: http://www.spindrift.com/CatalogPages/futureoflife.html
Moses Nonge says