all things must pass

PROGRAM NOTE

Written on the occasion of Fred Jodry’s retirement as choral director of Brown University, where I was his student.

The taillights of the last car
Lost in the trees
The dishes piled high in the sink
Goblets and scraps of meat
The candle snuffed out
Footfall in an empty house
All things, all things
All things must pass

The scores shut and the singers gone home
The final refrain trapped in the rafters
The students grown, dispersed
With children of their own
All things, all things
All things must pass

The tea gone cold in the breakfast nook
The farewell note slipped under the door
All things all things
All things must pass

And you alone in your pale green garden
With a glass of wine
In the thirty-third summer
On that hill
What will you sing to yourself?
All things, all things,
All things must pass

(text by the composer)

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all things must pass

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