Vol. 3: Wisdom from the World’s Religions

By Elizabeth Alexander & Saunder Choi

Some choral music does more than offer us a glimpse of another faith tradition; it asks us to inhabit its stories, prayers, practices, and understanding of the sacred. Here are some of our favorite pieces that do just that, inviting us to listen deeply, set aside assumptions, and encounter another way of seeing the world.

SAUNDER: Gerald Cohen‘s setting of “Adonai S’fatai Tiftach” – the Psalm 51:15 verse traditionally used to preface the Amidah – opens with an a cappella niggun (a wordless Jewish melody), with voices unfolding the melody before the piano and the formal text arrive. Having sung this text in High Holy Days services for the past several years, and having performed other settings ranging from contemporary pop arrangements to more traditional choral settings, I find it interesting to compare how differently composers frame this small request to “open my lips.”

 The middle section sets the same plea in English, but instead of the conventional “Lord,” it renders Adonai as “Holy One” and “Breath of Life.” This translation choice shifts the prayer away from a petition addressed to a traditionally masculine, named deity and toward something more universal — breath as a shared, animating force rather than a culturally specific God-image. This makes the piece well suited to interfaith services, where congregants may have varying relationships to Hebrew liturgy and traditional Jewish God-language, but can still connect with an address to something as elemental as breath and the divine.

ELIZABETH: Saunder Choi‘s “Blessed is the spot, and the house” offers a rare opportunity to engage with the Bahá’í Faith through the words of its founder, Bahá’u’lláh.

At its heart the piece is a chorale, but one that continually expands the expressive possibilities of the form. As place after place is made blessed – the house, the city, the mountain, the cave, the valley, the island, the meadow – the harmonies subtly shift, giving rise to ever-changing vocal colors. The sacred in the world around us is revealed, again and again.

This litany of blessed, earthly places is followed by the prayer’s final words: “…and their praise glorified.” We might expect such a phrase to be proclaimed with a triumphant fortissimo, but Choi takes us somewhere else entirely. The final harmonic shift – a breath, a whisper – leaves us with a lingering sense of mystery and awe.

SAUNDER: One could imagine Kabir as an early Unitarian Universalist, since his writings reflect values shared by Hindus, Sufis (Islam), and Sikhs — which is perhaps why he is claimed by so many of these communities today. Elizabeth Alexander‘s lyrical and flowing setting of “Song of Kabir” works with the Harvard Square Library’s adaptation of Rabindranath Tagore’s translation of the poem, changing “He” (referring to Brahma) to “You,” making it more intimate and personal. Much like the word namaste, this piece honors the divine light in each of us: “The divine in me sees the divine in you.”

Don’t let the meter changes intimidate you — the way Elizabeth sets them makes the prosody feel natural, intuitive, and speech-like. This song is a staple with my choir at UU Santa Monica, and it is a delight to sing every time. 

Adonai S’fatai Tiftach (Holy One, open my lips)	Blessed is the spot, and the house	Song of Kabir
Gerald Cohen SATB Chorus and Piano Difficulty: 3 Duration: 3-5 min.	Saunder Choi SMATB a cappella Difficulty: 4 Duration: 5-10 min.	Elizabeth Alexander SATB a cappella Difficulty: 3 Duration: less than 3 min.

ELIZABETH: The biblical story of the Road to Emmaus is often remembered for its startling ending: two grieving disciples discover they have been walking alongside the risen Jesus without recognizing him. But in Dominic DiOrio’s “He Walks the Road,” we are reminded of an aspect of this story that resonates powerfully with our own time. Here the disciples are not only grieving Jesus’ death, but also what they believe to be the collapse of a nonviolent movement standing up to the suffocating, imperial power of Rome.

The story begins in defeat, with slow, measured steps inviting us to walk alongside the travelers. As they speak of death and broken dreams, the organ, brass, and timpani gradually take on a larger role, as grief gives way to fear, frustration, and outrage. Then comes a moment that levels me every time. As their anger collapses into despair, the accompaniment suddenly dissolves into thin air, leaving the disciples utterly alone as they despondently sing: “We thought he was the one foretold.”

When describing an emotional journey, it’s easy to lightly toss around the word “catharsis,” but this song’s ending fully earns that description. The moment when Jesus’ identity is revealed is no clever “Voilà!” Instead, the realization that all is not lost is a gradual, internal one, an awakened hope arising from pain and loss.

SAUNDER: Dale Trumbore‘s “As It Is in Heaven” sets a text from Leo Tolstoy’s essay “On Reason, Faith and Prayer,” scored for SATB choir and organ, and carries Trumbore’s signature harmonic language — modality used in familiar and unexpected ways that keeps the listener engaged. 

Tolstoy’s text offers a deeply human take on faith and doubt: he acknowledges that no one has ever seen God, and reaffirms his own belief only by first questioning it, wondering aloud whether he truly believes he is in God and God in him. Trumbore mirrors that tension musically, setting the familiar words of the Lord’s Prayer homophonically (hymn-like), while Tolstoy’s solitary musings are set to solo voice, then unfold in contrapuntal, independent lines. As always, Dale’s mastery in text setting shines through! It’s a perfect choice for a service on faith and doubt, especially at a church with a strong organ program.

ELIZABETH: When Paul John Rudoi decided to base a choral piece on a prayer from the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad, he didn’t simply set words to music. He immersed himself in both this foundational Hindu text and the tradition of Vedic chant, seeking to understand the prayer’s meaning and purpose before writing a single note

 The resulting song, “Gamaya,” is a fluid, immersive experience. Its luminous textures grow out of brief canons that may be layered in countless ways, with hand drum percussion serving as an ever-present heartbeat. Performers are encouraged to experiment with tempo, dynamics, voicing, and entrances, making each performance a fresh exploration rather than a fixed interpretation.

If that degree of freedom sounds daunting, it isn’t! I was surprised to discover that “Gamaya’s” expansive sound world springs from an economical two-page score. The pronunciation guide is simple and clear, making the Sanskrit readily accessible to singers. On top of that, Rudoi created an engaging YouTube companion video, “Freeing Gamaya – A Practical Guide,” in which he demonstrates how performers may explore many different (and forgiving) ways to layer the canons. 

In summarizing what “Gamaya” ultimately offers, I find I can’t improve on the composer’s own words: “To me, the message of the piece is universal and speaks to, ideally, a common ground we can all agree on…to continually aim for our better selves with the goal of peace.”

He Walks the Road (Choral/Organ Score)	As it is in Heaven	Gamaya (equal voices) (Rudoi)
Dominick DiOrio SATB and Organ; see Full Score and Parts Difficulty: 3 Duration: 5-10 min.	Dale Trumbore SATB and Organ Difficulty: 3 Duration: 5-10 min.	Paul John Rudoi Equal voices, opt. doumbek; see SATB Difficulty: 2 Duration: 3-5 min.

Shop Music

Composer and lyricist Elizabeth Alexander grew up in the Carolinas and Appalachian Ohio. Her love of music, language and challenging questions is reflected in her catalog of over 150 compositions, many of which were written with liberal religious worship in mind. A Unitarian Universalist for over 40 years, she is an active member of Unity Church-Unitarian in St. Paul, MN.

LA-based Filipino-Chinese composer Saunder Choi brings the totality of his life experience to his work as a professional singer, immigrant, LGBTQ+ advocate. In addition to his role as Director of Music at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Santa Monica, he was Music Coordinator of the 2022 Virtual Unitarian Universalist Association General Assembly and Music Director of the 2024 public worship service of Diverse and Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist Multicultural Ministries (DRUUMM).