Princeton Motets (And I Saw)

This work emerged from a pandemic Zoom chat with Euan Tait in January 2021; I had wanted to gain his insights for another project I was writing for Princeton Chapel — new music for their monthly communion service.  But at the end of the conversation, he ventured that he felt inspired to write a companion set of poetry for the music I would be writing.  By the time I presented the idea to Nicole Aldrich, Princeton’s chapel choir director, and Alison Boden, the Dean of the chapel, they had recently hosted a 2022 collegiate conference on the theme of ” A New Heaven and a New Earth” from Revelations.  They were open to the idea of a companion piece, but wondered if Euan would be willing to pivot to that theme.  He said yes, and that was that.

The first movement came right away when I started to immerse myself in Euan’s poetry. He has such a musical voice.  But a busy schedule postponed more writing until the Christmas holiday of 2023, right as I caught Covid for the second time…a perfect time for a composer to be under house arrest!  A continuously busy schedule for both me and the choir necessitated the postponement of the premiere until Christ the King Sunday at the end of November 2024.  It was a joyous reunion with Euan — who by then I had had the chance to visit twice in Wales.  The choir sang beautifully under Nicole’s inspiring and sensitive leading — in the awesome space of Princeton Chapel. (And I enjoyed slipping into the tenor section!)

Partnering with Euan, Nicole, and Alison on this creative journey was very meaningful — each of us having spent a lifetime steeped in the imagery and ideals of the Christian story.  Euan’s offering was far more than mere words to set — rather, a testament to the lives we have all aimed to live and the inspirations that have guided us.  It was powerfully affirming to send movement after movement to Nicole and to be received with deep musical comprehension and spiritual kinship.  And for me, the chance to write a movement about footwashing was especially “close to home.” My own spiritual tradition, the Church of the Brethren, has as its most important sacrament the enactment of footwashing — as Jesus intended, one of the clearest symbols of an orientation of love and service to one’s fellows.  But I never dreamed I would write music to poetry about it.  Thank you, Euan.

(with brief excerpts from each movement’s poetry)

“Light sweeps in, window to window…”

“When the trumpet sounded, we awoke with a yawn,

Our restless bird-chatter our nearest to praise…”

“…and I heard shepherds coming down from the hills in their thousands,

making the air ring with their laughter,

as if it were the sound of the Word in the beginning.

“…I looked afresh and Love whispered: see again, this is how I love you.”

“… Her Son was lifted up, and drew all the cries of the world to himself…”

“It is dawn. As if the world flows anew in me. The earth receives my weeping,

as if it is the flesh of God. O dear God, I am waiting.”