Written for organ, SATB choir, and oboe.
Over thirty years ago, in the early 1980s, while I was living in Norfolk, VA, and stationed at CREDO (The Chaplains Religious Enrichment Development Operation), the Reverend DeWane Zimmerman was pastor at Phoenix’s First United Methodist Church, one of the then largest Methodist churches in Arizona. I used to receive his bulletins and newsletters and marveled at the depth of his thought and his ability to express it. He had one prayer which he often used at memorial services that I found particularly meaningful – so meaningful, in fact, that I copied and shared it with hundreds of people.
Here is that prayer:
“Grant us to see, O God, that the one we have loved, Has become a part of us, Interfused with our lives, Blended with mind and memory, Joined to our very souls.
Strengthen us in our continuing journey, That the good we knew, The Joy we felt, The laughter we shared, The love we received, Shall live on in ourselves, And be passed on to others. And now let your peace fall upon us. Amen”
Later, I was attending a memorial service for the Reverend Laura Grace Eisenhower, one of my wife’s aunts. At her memorial service, I read one of her prayers which included these words:
“No length of time with those we love is ever enough, so God gives us eternity together.”
I knew that I wanted to combine both of these thoughts and use them in an anthem, but didn’t know quite where to start. About that time, I remembered the haunting but lovely Welsh lullaby that was played and replayed in the 1990s movie, “Empire of the Sun.”
I decided to start and end with that lullaby, writing my own words but substituting my harmonies. For the middle section, I knew that I needed to write a melody that would fit with the lyrics created by those two pastors. The only places I changed their lyrics in this section was for emphasis or to help the anthem flow.
Listen to a soulless, computer generated, MIDI recording of this piece:
