With My Blessing I Have Blessed You

from Angel of Light

SATB Chorus, Soprano Solo
Duration: 4 Minutes
Text: Traditional Shaker, Canterbury, NH
Year: 2015

Commissioned by: Capitol Hill Chorale, Washington, DC
Premiered by: Capitol Hill Chorale, Frederick Binkholder, director, June 6 & 7, 2015

E. C. Schirmer “Dale Warland Choral Series” #8783

ORDER
J.W. Pepper
Musicroom
Sheetmusicplus
ECS Publishing

 
 

  • With My Blessing I Have Blessed You is the concluding movement of Angel of Light, a cantata based on Shaker themes. Adapted from a visionary Shaker hymn from 1841, With My Blessing I Have Blessed You is a rhapsodic exchange between soprano soloist and chorus, featuring English language text with a refrain in an unknown tongue. The use of vocables and unknown tongues are common elements of early Shaker music and a prominent focus of Angel of Light. In With My Blessing I Have Blessed You, the haunting, benedictory refrains should be sung with expressive warmth and depth of feeling. While these words at first seem unintelligible, their beauty and meaning emerges through the singing.

  • With my blessing I have blessed you, O my children!
    With my comfort I have comforted you;
    Yea, with my love I have loved you.
    Vo o vo nee; O harka e on a se.

    With my union I have joined you, O my children!
    With my courage I’ve encouraged you,
    Yea, with my strength I have strengthened you.
    Qua on, qua o; O larka ree anna so.

    By my wisdom I have guided you, O my children!
    With my beauty I have beautified you.
    Yea, with my light I’ve illumined you,
    Yea, with my love, I have loved you.
    Vo o vo nee; O harka e on a se.

    **

    PRONUNCIATION
    Vo o vo nee; O harka e on a se
    Vō ō vō nē; ō här’kə ā ôn’ə sā

    Qua on, qua o; O larka ree anna so
    Kwā ôn, kwā ō; ō lär’kə rē an’ə sō