Four Pieces for Male Chorus

TTBB choir, unaccompanied
Part Songs by Ulysses Kay

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These miniatures use text by Carl Sandburg, William Shakespeare, A.E. Houseman, and Willa Cather. The varied approach to each song provides uniqueness to each song.

1. Between Two Hills – Carl Sanburg (1878–1967)

Between two hills
The old town stands.
The houses loom
And the roofs and trees
And the dusk and the dark,
The damp and the dew
Are there.

The prayers are said
And the people rest
For sleep is there
And the touch of dreams
Is over all.

2. Song – William Shakespeare (bapt. 1564–1616)

Under the greenwood tree
Who loves to lie with me,
And turn his merry note
Unto the sweet bird's throat,
Come hither, come hither, come hither:
Here shall he see
No enemy
But winter and rough weather.

Who doth ambition shun
And loves to live i' the sun,
Seeking the food he eats,
And pleased with what he gets,
Come hither, come hither, come hither:
Here shall he see
No enemy
But winter and rough weather.

3. With Rue My Heart Is Laden – A. E. Housman (1859–1936)

With rue my heart is laden
For golden friends I had,
For many a rose-lipt maiden
And many a lightfoot lad.

By brooks too broad for leaping
The lightfoot boys are laid;
The rose-lipt girls are sleeping
In fields where roses fade.

4. Spanish Johnny – Willa Cather (1876–1947)

The old West, the old time,
The old wind singing through
The red, red grass a thousand miles,
And, Spanish Johnny, you!

He’d sit beside the water-ditch
When all his herd was in,
And never mind a child, but sing
To his mandolin.

The big stars, the blue night,
The moon-enchanted plain:
The olive man who never spoke,
But sang the songs of Spain.

His speech with men was wicked talk —
To hear it was a sin;
But those were golden things he said
To his mandolin.

The gold songs, the gold stars,
The world so golden then:
And the hand so tender to a child
Had killed so many men.

He died a hard death long ago
Before the Road came in;
The night before he swung, he sang
To his mandolin.