If any choirs and conductors would like to make a statement against the Muslim ban, there is free music to protest against racism and hatred here:
http://www.hutchingsmusic.co.uk/choirsagainstracism/
Just added “The Wall” for unaccompanied 2-part choir:
(lyrics by me with some excerpts from “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus – the poem that’s on the Statue of Liberty)
They crossed the borders to get here;
they crossed the lines they could not see;
They wanted all they could get here,
A job, a life, to just breathe free;
A wall, we said, a great big beautiful wall,
with cam’ras, concrete, steel and razor wire,
Will keep them out; we’ll keep them out;
they won’t get past our wall.
They crossed the ocean to get here,
they paid the smugglers all their gold;
Their craft was toss’d on the tempest,
A huddled mass packed in the hold;
Our laws, we said, our shifting, complex laws,
an order from the President himself,
will keep them out; we’ll keep them out;
they won’t get past our laws.
They passed through horror to get here,
Fled dangers they could not ignore;
They saw our lights in the distance,
A lamp beside a golden door;
Our hearts, we said, our harden’d, thankless hearts,
with kindness and compassion hammer’d out of them,
Will keep them out; we’ll keep them out;
they won’t get to our hearts.
Download the score at http://www.hutchingsmusic.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/The-Wall.pdf