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Jeffrey Derus

Jeffrey Derus is an American composer, producer, and musician. His music has gained a worldwide presence with commissions and performances from ensembles such as Choral Arts Initiative, INSPIRARE, Constellation Men’s Ensemble, Inversion Ensemble, KC VITAS, the Nova Scotia Choral Federation, Temple University, and Vanguard University. Hailed as “powerful, dramatic, lucid” (Sonograma Magazine) and “elegant” (Voice...

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Caribbean Blue Publishing (Jeffrey Derus)

The House of Belonging

Name: The House of Belonging
SKU: CB-TheHouseOfBelonging
Availability: InStock

Jeffrey Derus

Belonging is something we all want, but we can only find it within ourselves.

Difficulty: 4

Duration: less than 3 min.

CB-TheHouseOfBelonging

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SATB Chorus with Divisi

Commissioned by Brandon Elliott and Choral Arts Initiative, David Whyte’s words call for a sense of self- awareness. “The House of Belonging” grounds itself in a communal voice as the choir moves as one, as though all the varied parts of our life come together to speak about where we all truly belong… to ourselves. From our outer darkness to our inner light, we are all we will ever need all at once. This moment of enlightenment is celebratory while marking the day of finally becoming everything we have ever wanted and needed by just being ourselves.

Text

This is the bright home
in which I live,
this is where
I ask
my friends
to come,
this is where I want
to love all the things
it has taken me so long
to learn to love.

This is the temple
of my adult aloneness
and I belong
to that aloneness
as I belong to my life.

There is no house
like the house of belonging.

-David Whyte

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