Secular – Page 2 – Esther Bersweden

The Cloths of Heaven

SATB, minimal splits up to SSAATTBB

c. 1’40”

Performed by Avon Chamber Choir, directed by Esther Bersweden, 2022

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

W. B. Yeats (1865–1939)

If you would like to perform this piece, please get in touch via the Contact page. I am happy to send perusal scores if interest is expressed.

So What is Love?

SATB

c. 2′

Performed by Avon Chamber Choir, directed by Esther Bersweden, 2025

So what is love? If thou wouldst know
The heart alone can tell:
Two minds with but a single thought,
Two hearts that beat as one.

And whence comes Love? Like morning bright
Love comes without thy call.
And how dies Love? A spirit bright,
Love never dies at all.

Maria Lovell (1803-1877)

If you would like to perform this piece, please get in touch via the Contact page. I am happy to send perusal scores if interest is expressed.

Safe

SATB with Alto Solo, splits up to SSAATTB

c. 4’10”

Performed by Avon Chamber Choir, directed by Esther Bersweden, 2024

This morning
when the wren sang its tiny heart out to be heard over the rush hour
And the sun pushed hopefully through the naked trees
I heard you

This evening
when the fox froze in the icy pool of streetlight
And the clouds tried to dull the moon’s ecstatic brilliance
I saw you

Last night
when the rain drummed a jazz rhythm
On the glass
And I was warm-wrapped safe
I felt you

You’re always around me,
Whenever I hear you
Each time I see you
The moment I feel you
You’re with me.

If you would like to perform this piece, please get in touch via the Contact page. I am happy to send perusal scores if interest is expressed.

Light

SATB and Piano, splits up to SSATB

c. 5′

Commissioned for Bristol Youth Choir, celebrating the opening of the Bristol Beacon

Performed by Bristol Youth Choir at Bristol Beacon, directed by David Ogden, 2024

Light, my light, the world-filling light,
the eye-kissing light,
heart-sweetening light!

Ah, the light dances, my darling, at the center of my life;
the light strikes, my darling, the chords of my love;
the sky opens, the wind runs wild, laughter passes over the earth.

The butterflies spread their sails on the sea of light.
Lilies and jasmines surge up on the crest of the waves of light.

The light is shattered into gold on every cloud, my darling,
and it scatters gems in profusion.

Mirth spreads from leaf to leaf, my darling,
and gladness without measure.
The heaven’s river has drowned its banks
and the flood of joy is abroad.

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)

If you would like to perform this piece, please get in touch via the Contact page. I am happy to send perusal scores if interest is expressed.

Down Hill on a Bicycle

SSAATTBB with two Solo Whistlers

c. 4’30”

Commissioned by the National Youth Choir, 18-25

With lifted feet, hands still,
I am poised, and down the hill
Dart, with heedful mind;
The air goes by in a wind.

Swifter and yet more swift,
Till the heart with a mighty lift
Makes the lungs laugh, the throat cry:-
‘O bird, see; see, bird, I fly.

*’Is this your joy, so wild?
O bird, then I, though a child,
For a golden moment share
Your feathery life in air!’

Say, heart, is there aught like this
**In a world of bliss?
‘Tis more than skating, bound
Steel-shod to the level ground.

Speed slackens now, I float
Awhile in my airy boat;
Till, when the wheels scarce crawl,
My feet to the treadles fall.

Alas, that the longest hill
Must end in a vale; but still,
Who climbs with toil, wheresoe’er,
Shall find wings waiting there.

Henry Charles Beeching (1859-1919)

* In the original poem, these two lines read:
‘Is this, is this your joy?
O bird, then I, though a boy,

** In the original poem, this line reads:
In a world that is full of bliss?

If you would like to perform this piece, please get in touch via the Contact page. I am happy to send perusal scores if interest is expressed.

A Spirit

SATB, splits up to SSATB

c. 3’40”

Performed by Avon Chamber Choir and directed by Esther Bersweden, 2023

For I have learned
To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
The still sad music of humanity,
Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue.—And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
From Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey

If you would like to perform this piece, please get in touch via the Contact page. I am happy to send perusal scores if interest is expressed.