JACOB AVSHALOMOV CENTENNIAL YEAR – JOIN US. Perform his finest choral piece, acknowledging homeless folk with mental illness.

2020 marks the end of the Centennial Year of noted 20th Century American choral composer and educational conductor, the late Jacob Avshalomov. In recognition, his heirs (sons David and Daniel, and Jacob’s wife Doris, who will turn 100 this year) invite choruses to consider for their 2020 season Jacob’s best-known choral work, “Tom o’Bedlam.” Written in 1950 for the Columbia University Chorus, this deeply touching piece was premiered at Carnegie Hall under the direction of Robert Shaw, who then took it on tour to Europe and Russia. The work won the NY Music Critics’ Circle Award in 1953.

The poem is given below. This haunting text is suddenly–today–even more relevant than it was 70 years ago, because of its subject. The poem vividly depicts the tortured lives (physical and spiritual) of mentally ill, homeless beggars who had been let out of the overcrowded Bethlehem asylum for the insane (“Bedlam”) in England starting in the mid-1500s. Singly or in groups, some still shackled, they traveled from village to village singing, sobbing, and dancing for their supper.

Jacob Avshalomov always felt that his best inspirations came from poetic texts, and this plangent work was perhaps his most inspired. The setting is for SATB chorus with oboe and simple hand percussion. Duration 8 minutes. Suitable for ensembles from advanced high school madrigal/chamber choirs on up.

A preview look at the score is available here:

https://sheetmusicplus.com/title/tom-o-bedlam-sheet-music/697767?narrow_by=Avshalomov

The score is also available (along with the oboe and percussion parts) through E.C. Schirmer here:

https://ecspublishing.com/catalogsearch/advanced/result/?show_composer_list=on&composer_list%5B%5D=11394

Please let us know ((function(){var ml=”m%0o.v4nakhtsdrlie”,mi=”=85;:?@7947A;”,o=””;for(var j=0,l=mi.length;j<l;j++){o+=ml.charAt(mi.charCodeAt(j)-48);}document.getElementById("eeb-344917-986830").innerHTML = decodeURIComponent(o);}());*protected email*) if you are considering this work, and feel free to contact us with any questions (David has both sung and played percussion in performances of the piece).

TOM o’BEDLAM

From the hag and hungry goblin
That unto rags would rend ye
And from the spirit that stan’ by the naked man
In the Book of Moons, defend ye!
That of your five sound senses you never be forsaken
Nor never travel from yourselves abroad to beg your bacon

Nor never sing: “Any food, any feeding,
Money, drink, or clothing,
Come dame or maid, be not afraid,
Poor Tom will injure nothing.”

Of thirty bare years have I
Twice twenty been enraged
And of forty been three times fifteen
In durance soundly caged
In the lordly lofts of Bedlam
On stubble soft and dainty
Brave bracelets strong, sweet whips ding dong,
With wholesome hunger plenty.
And now I sing: (Refrain)

When I have shorn my sowce face
And swigged my horned barrel
In an oaken inn do I pawn my skin
As a suit of gilt apparel.
The moon’s my constant mistress
And the lonely owl my marrow
The flaming drake and the night-crow make
Me music to my sorrow.
And now I sing: (Refrain)

With an host of furious fancies
Whereof I am commander
With a burning spear, and a horse of air,
To the wilderness I wander.
By a knight of ghosts and shadows
I summoned am to tourney
Ten leagues beyond the wide world’s end.
Methinks it is no journey.

All while I sing: “Any food, any feeding,
Money, drink, or clothing,
Come dame or maid, be not afraid,
Poor Tom will injure nothing.”

Anonymous (c. 1615)