THE GIFT TO SING
For SATB or SSAA with piano
Sheet Music
Available for SATB or SSAA with piano.
Composer Notes:
While reading James Weldon Johnson’s poem for the first time, I was immediately reminded of all the difficult times that music has helped me through. How I wrote the composition Hope to process a miscarriage, or how I wrote I Will Lift My Eyes at a time when multiple family members, both young and old, were being diagnosed with cancer.
No matter life’s challenges, music has always been an outlet for me to cope and heal. It has helped me to persevere and fight through some of life's most difficult moments, ultimately making me a stronger person. The world can be a challenging place, but each of us are warriors—armed with the gift to sing, and filled with the fire, passion, drive, and grit to conquer anything.
-Zachary J. Moore
TEXT
Sometimes the mist overhangs my path,
And blackening clouds about me cling;
But, oh, I have a magic way
To turn the gloom to cheerful day—
I softly sing.
And if the way grows darker still,
Shadowed by Sorrow’s somber wing,
With glad defiance in my throat,
I pierce the darkness with a note,
And sing, and sing.
I brood not over the broken past,
Nor dread whatever time may bring;
No nights are dark, no days are long,
While in my heart there swells a song,
And I can sing.
~James Weldon Johnson
