Length: 3:45
Voicing: SATB (some divisi), unaccompanied
Difficulty: Intermediate
Year: 2024

Winner of 2025 Dragon Prize in Choral Music from Minnesota State University Moorhead

Selected for the EcoVoice Project’s 2025 “Cry of the Earth” Call for Scores

Text:

oh, let me be like a tree
planted by a stream,
yielding fruit in season,
leaves evergreen.

let me flourish,
let me prosper.

adapted from Psalm 1:3

About the work:

I was drawn to adapt the text of Psalm 1:3 because of the beautiful image it conjures: a tree planted by a stream, nourished so it can set roots in the ground, and grow branches and leaves towards the sky. I've spent much time lately thinking of how the people and environments I surround myself in within my own life either allow me to to flourish and prosper, or to wither and dry. I adapted the text into a first person prayer because idea of putting ourselves in environments where we can flourish is universal and something I resonated strongly with.

Musically, I focused on one central idea: the concept of growing like a tree. I tried to achieve this through the harmonic language, that begins quite hymn-like (an homage to the source text), and grows in complexity as the piece "flourishes and prospers." I also achieved this through the musical texture. The rhythms initially begin simply and steadily, with some stark emptiness between phrases, and grows in richness and complexity as the piece progresses, like a tree sprouting branches and driving its roots deeper into the ground as it ages. By the end of the piece, I hope to evoke the image of a lush, green, towering tree, glorious and splendid in its old age.