The Word is Inside You for SATB chorus

                                                 Text by St. John Baptist De La Salle

 

 

Program Notes  

Considering my secular Jewish background, I find a sweet irony in teaching at a Catholic college. Saint Mary’s College is directed by the Christian Brothers, an order founded by St. John Baptist De La Salle. Their mission is to teach. When I arrived at Saint Mary's in 1984, it offered what I most desired: employment. I had no idea I would come to find the college a unique environment which nurtured my musical and intellectual life in extraordinary and unexpected ways. In 1997 I was asked to compose a work for the inauguration of the new college president, Br. Craig Franz. I was pleased for the opportunity to express musically my respect for him, the college and the Christian Brothers, and selected as a text the Christian Brothers universal refrain: “Let us remember that we are in the holy presence of God.”