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Dale Trumbore
Dale Trumbore
Completing the Circle (SATB)
This modern carol finds comfort in the familiar memories of Christmas, even in the darkest winter nights.
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Completing the Circle
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Completing the Circle
SATB a cappella
Though Barbara Crooker describes a modern Christmas in her text for “Completing the Circle,” there is a timeless, even ancient sense of ritual in the way she depicts the season of Advent: “gathering branches / of green pine… / making rings of fire / in wax and wood.” The memory of Christmases past can be bittersweet, too, and Crooker alludes to this in the darkness that winter brings: “days of grey / and iron nights.” Ultimately, fond memories offer us a link to the past as well as a comfort that can be felt even in the darkest nights of winter.
“Completing the Circle” is dedicated to the participating choruses of the Christmas Past, Christmas Future! Carol Consortium, who co-commissioned this piece along with “Glorious, Glorious.” While “Completing the Circle” sets a modern text that recalls nostalgic memories of Christmas, “Glorious, Glorious” sets a classic text that looks ahead to a bright future. This pieces can be programmed together or separately.
Text
with the women, waiting,
gathering branches
of green pine
in the dead of the year,
making rings of fire
in wax and wood,
completing the circle
with calls and cards,
wreathing the children
in cinnamon and chocolate,
stringing berries and corn,
stringing memories,
quilting them tightly,
in winter,
with the days of grey
and iron nights.
— Barbara Crooker
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