Two new SATB pieces available: “My Beloved Spake” and “Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor”

Two new pieces are now available for download from my website’s scores page, https://nicholasweininger.com/scores. Both are SATB a cappella with limited divisi, suitable for high school, college, or adult ensembles.

First is my setting of Song of Solomon 2:10-13, “My Beloved Spake,” which uses chanted motifs and a call-and-response setting to evoke both the solemnity of the text in context and the playful imagery of a lover calling out to the beloved.

Second is my short new setting of “Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor,” which seeks to complicate what has traditionally been a standard patriotic text and bring out both the pain and uncertainty of the immigrant experience and the relief that may be found “beside the golden door.” Written early in 2018 for the International Orange Chorale of San Francisco, the piece has proven even timelier than I expected, and I have made it free to download on the website both because of its brevity and because I want to make it accessible to the widest possible array of choirs who may wish to use it to express solidarity with immigrants in these times.