Shop for Music

About the Composer

Reginal Wright

Reginal Wright has served over 20 years as a public school teacher. As an educator, Reginal has earned many awards including Outstanding Teacher, Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers, and the Secondary Educator of the Year Award. Reginal has performed music throughout Europe and the United States. As a conductor, he is sought after as a...

Learn More About Reginal Wright

Graphite Publishing

The Gift to Sing

Name: The Gift to Sing
SKU: GP-W006
Availability: InStock

Reginal Wright

A reminder that through song we can be healed and find community.

Difficulty: 4

Duration: 3-5 min.

GP-W006

Add to cart

SATB (div.), piano

“The Gift to Sing” tells a story anyone can relate to: from the mists of sadness and difficulty, singing helps us find joy and sunlight again. Wright’s piece is divided into two sections. The first section sets the emotional stage of tension and difficulty. In the second section the tension is relieved with cascading voices calling all people to share the gift of song.

Text

Sometimes the mist overhangs my path,
And blackening clouds about me cling;
But, oh, I have a magic way
To turn the gloom to cheerful day—
I softly sing.

And if the way grows darker still,
Shadowed by Sorrow’s somber wing,
With glad defiance in my throat,
I pierce the darkness with a note,
And sing, and sing.

I brood not over the broken past,
Nor dread whatever time may bring;
No nights are dark, no days are long,
While in my heart there swells a song,
And I can sing.

– James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938)

$2.15 per licensed PDF