PROJECT : ENCORE™: Other

Although premiered at Jordan Hall in March 2003 by a children’s chorus (PALS) with baritone soloist, The Voice of Isaac has subsequently been presented with solo adult voices and  can effectly be presented in several possible ways including adult singers (chorus and soloists) only, as well as a combination of adult and children singing choral and solo parts.

Program note [from March 2003 Jordan Hall premiere]:

This piece was inspired by looking at pictures of the Amazon River and its tributaries. It follows a rain drop from a melting snow pile through streams, pristine lakes, stagnant waters choked with algae, polluted tributaries, huge rivers, and finally into the ocean.
 

These songs were originally written for solo voices and guitar,
and were used in a production of “Twelfth Night” staged in 1980
at the No Smoking Playhouse in New York City.
 

This piece is written in a gospel style but has aspects of jazz and modern "classical" writing as well. There is a good deal of call and response and the piece is quite rhythmic. The opening solo, "I have a dream" may be sung by any male voice-type. The "Shouters," male and female voices in unison, sing a repetitive riff on the text "From the hills of New Hampshire! From New York’s mighty mountains!...
This piece is almost certainly a concert finale - the ending is "big."
It was composed in honor of Brown vs. Board Education, May 17, 1954 and