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Mari Esabel Valverde

Award-winning transgender Mexican-American composer Mari Esabel Valverde has been commissioned by the American Choral Directors Association, Boston Choral Ensemble, Cantus, the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses, Los Angeles Master Chorale, One Voice Mixed Chorus, Portland’s Resonance Ensemble, Seattle Men’s and Women’s Choruses, the Texas Music Educators Association, and the University of Michigan Men’s Glee...

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Mari Esabel Valverde

Winter Ride

Name: Winter Ride
SKU: MVC-184
Availability: InStock

Mari Esabel Valverde

Bursting open with melodies striving to express the pleasure of running through snow.

Choral

mixed choir

a cappella

Difficulty: 4

Duration: less than 3 min.

MVC-184

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for SATB chorus a cappella

“Winter Ride” bursts open with melodies striving to express the pleasure of running through snow. Save a moment to revel in the brightness of the light, this briskly paced work, sung in four parts a cappella with optional divisi, sweeps listeners off their feet and carries them away with a joyful message.

Composer’s Notes

In “Winter Ride,” winter is bold, ephemeral, colorful, mysterious, and nourishing. This briskly paced work bursts open with melodies striving to express the pleasure of running through white snow. Save a moment to revel in the brightness of the light, it sweeps listeners off their feet, dances through various tonal areas, and carries them away with a joyful message of thankfulness for life and living. Composed in the style of an Advent carol, it is sung in four parts a cappella with optional divisi and comfortably rides the fence between secular and sacred.

This work was commissioned by the International Orange Chorale of San Francisco under the direction of Zane Fiala as part of the responsibilities for their 2018 Composer-in-Residence, and it is featured on multiple albums including SACRA/PROFANA’s A Longing for Christmas and Seattle Pro Musica’s Solstice: Music of Light for the Holidays.

– Mari Esabel Valverde

Text

Who shall declare the joy of the running!
Who shall tell of the pleasures of flight!
Springing and spurning the tufts of wild heather,
Sweeping, wide-winged, through the blue dome of light.
Everything mortal has moments immortal,
Swift and God-gifted, immeasurably bright.

So with the stretch of the white road before me,
Shining snowcrystals rainbowed by the sun,
Fields that are white, stained with long, cool, blue shadows,
Strong with the strength of my horse as we run.
Joy in the touch of the wind and the sunlight!
Joy! With the vigorous earth I am one.

-Amy Lowell

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