We Breathless Stand
2017
Wind Ensemble and Choir
7:55 min
Available for rent here.
Program Notes
We Breathless Stand was commissioned to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the establishment of the Grand Canyon National Park by U.S. Army Field Band in 2019.
When one considers the timeframe of a hundred years in the context of the geological timeframe which formed this monumental natural wonder (between 5 and 6 million years), the power of nature immediately asserts itself into our human scale and sense of time. How can we not be awestruck with something so beautiful, colorful, and so detailed in its design?
The first thing I did when starting work on the piece was to look for a text to set for the choir which is a part of the U.S. Army Field Band. I found this poem from by Edward Robinson Taylor, composed in 1906 - around the time the national park was established:
To The Grand Canyon
by Edward Robeson Taylor, 1906
Upon the lofty rim we breathless stand,
As the stupendous, myriad structures glow
With color's opulence, while far below
The raging river seems a slender band.
You are eternal, yet your grand,
Unrivaled palaces will surely go
In wreck a-down the ages as they flow,
While other beauties will their place command.
Time is for man alone, and not for Him
Who bade the light forevermore to be,
And thee in all its amethyst to swim.
The Lord that fashioned us has fashioned thee,
And as we put our human hands in thine,
We thrill to feel that we are both divine.
I wanted to tell the story of the creation of the canyon over its epic time scale - the piece beings with murmuring winds which, in various ways continue throughout the piece, suggesting the flowing water of the Colorado River; first as a gentle brook, eventually a roaring river. As we progress through the text, the canyon, and it’s emotional power are revealed to us in ever more powerful statements from both the choir, and the ensemble.
- Jeff Beal