Live Performance Samples

I Hear America Singing (from Four Lyrics of Inspiration)

For SATB Chorus with Piano
Music: Eric Ewazen
Poetry: Walt Whitman

I Hear America Singing by one of my very favorite American Poets, Walt Whitman, not only confirms that we have (or at least SHOULD have), as a country, common ideals and senses of right and wrong. But it celebrates the spirit that has resulted in some of the momentous accomplishments of our times, righting wrongs, forging ahead with knowledge, hopes, and dreams and a sense of energy and wisdom.  The common man is celebrated in I Hear America Singing, but so too are the parents, and the children, the workers, and the old and the young.  The words are a joyous tribute to life in it most positive and celebratory essence.  The words sing, and I wanted my music to sing, with rich chorale writing, major keys predominating, a playful fugue, and a final cadence bringing these lyrics of inspiration to a joyous finale. — Eric Ewazen

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe
and strong,

The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off
work,

The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the
deckhand singing on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing
as he stands,

The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in the
morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at
work, or of the girl sewing or washing,

Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young
fellows, robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs