ALWAYS KEEP THIS CLOSE
For SATB or SSAA with piano and string quartet
Composition: Always Keep This Close
Ensemble: SFASU A cappella Choir
Conductor: Dr. Michael Murphy
Sheet Music
Available for SATB and SSAA with piano and optional string quartet. Sheet Music with Santa Barbara Music Publishing
Always Keep This Close
Always keep this close
and you’ll never need more,
your world is here
with the familiar voices
that linger in the air
and all those hearts
that have learned to beat
in time with each other.
You make more than music here.
No notes are as connected
as the souls that sing them
and no soul is happier than when
she is surrounded by her sisters.
Even when you leave
this does not leave you,
when you are lost just listen
and you will always
find your way home.
It is impossible for something
to go from your life
without first becoming part
of who you are.
You are another,
I am you,
we are one.
~Colleen Carhuff (b. 1992)
The Greatest Thing We'll Ever Have
Composer Notes:
I am a part of all I have met, and all I have met is a part of me,” is a quote that exists on the wall of my old classroom at Waukesha West High School in Waukesha, WI. Truer words have never been spoken, for when I write music, every influence in my life is right there in the room with me guiding each note that I put on the page. Since this piece’s original debut for treble choir back in 2015, to now, having this composition performed by the Stephen F. Austin State University A Cappella Choir (under the direction of Dr. Michael Murphy), the road has been an unexpected journey. Truly, the same can be said for each of us. We have all experienced unexpected peaks and valleys in our lives and each of those experiences is like adding a new ridge to a figurative fingerprint. And in a choir, each of those fingerprints come together to create a unique blend that goes beyond the music that is created. As it states in the poem, “you make more than music here,” you make lifelong memories that will live forever in the heart and mind, and that can never be lost. - Zachary J. Moore
