St. Paul and Gibran by the Sea

$3.50

Digital Score

Instrumentation: SSAATTBB choir, unaccompanied

Duration: 6:30

Date of Completion: January 2019

SKU: MH0027 Category:
About the work​

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

St. Paul and Gibran by the Sea was inspired by an idea. What if Khalil Gibran, writer of The Prophet, met St. Paul and sat by the sea? What would these two wise and loving men talk about? What lessons would they share?

Commissioned by Dr. Kyle Nielsen and the Southern Virginia University Chamber Singers.

Text

The sea is God’s clanging cymbal of memory
Swirling and breaking, a gong sounding over the bluffs.

It is the faith of monks, chanting on its shores.

It is hope crashing over rocks, singing and spraying salty rainbows against a cloudless sky.

It is love.

The sea is love when it reveals itself over the brokenness of our ever-changing sands.

Text by Jonathan Talberg.

Audio

West Coast premiere by Jonathan Talberg and the California State University Long Beach Bob Cole Conservatory Chamber Choir: