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Mari Esabel Valverde
Mari Esabel Valverde
A Green Voice (SSAA)
A song of hope and regeneration.
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A Green Voice
for SSAA chorus (div.) and piano
In “A Green Voice,” spring is reborn after a period of cold desolation; wishes for nourishing light are granted as blooming trees foretell their abundance; and a lost memory is recovered with sweet music. From wintry breeze and silence to shining sun and colorful harmony, the choir sings a song of hope and regeneration.
Composer’s Notes
In “A Green Voice,” spring is reborn after a period of cold desolation; wishes for nourishing light are granted as blooming trees foretell their abundance; and a lost memory is recovered with sweet music. A wintry breeze, depicted in the piano’s flourishes, brings in the choir, and they sing a song of hope and regeneration. From near silence, punctuated by the piano’s dry chords, the singing builds voice by voice through a long crescendo till the shining sun is revealed in colorful harmony.
While predominantly sung in four parts, there are moments of divisi in the inner voices, which may be reassigned as necessary.
Composed in 2023, the original SATB version of “A Green Voice” was commissioned for the Metropolitan Chorale of Iowa’s Cedar Valley, an ensemble comprising of amateur and professional singers of diverse ages and experiences, under the leadership of Dr. Amy Kotsonis, for their 69th season in loving memory of patron of the arts C. Hugh Petterson. The following year, the SSAA voicing of “A Green Voice” was commissioned by California Choral Directors Association for their 2025 All-State Soprano-Alto Honor Choir, conducted Dr. Kimberly Dunn Adams, and was premiered at the California Music Educators Association Convention (CASMEC) in Sacramento.
-Mari Esabel Valverde
Text
Whatever cold tones
an empty sky echoes
after birds vanish
from meadow and tree,
and bright hues of color
fade as the flowers lie
buried in snow above
roots sealed in frost,
if the tunes grow faint
in the ear of your memory
and the country of your silence
seems windswept and bare,
give sun to this plant
that I bring you for Easter,
this small tree risen
with love from its earth,
and listen as soft leaves
unfold note by note,
it will add a green voice
to the time you need singing.
-James Hearst
Copyright © 2001 by University of Iowa Press. Used with Permission of the University of Northern Iowa Foundation.
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