Choral SATB choir, piano
SKU: PR.342402020
In Memoriam John F.
Kennedy, 1917-1963.
Composed by Steven
Stucky. Sws. Premiered by
ACDA National Conference,
Craig Jessop, cond.;
Meyerson Symphony Center,
Dallas, TX. Secular
choral. Performance
Score. With Standard
notation. Composed
November 3 2012. 24
pages. Duration 13
minutes. Theodore Presser
Company #342-40202.
Published by Theodore
Presser Company
(PR.342402020).
ISBN
9781598064995. UPC:
680160616084. 8.5 x 11
inches. English. Text:
William Shakespeare;
Aurelius Prudentius
Clemens; Aeschylus.
Aurelius Clemens, William
Shakespeare, Aeschylus.
Texts from Aurelius
Prudentius Clemens,
Aeschylus, and William
Shakespeare.
When
Tim Sharp, Executive
Director of the ACDA,
offered Stucky the Brock
Memorial Commission, it
was decided that the text
would commemorate the
50th anniversary of the
assassination of John F.
Kennedy, since the annual
convention would take
place in Dallas of that
year. To that end, Stucky
chose four different but
pertinent texts to honor
the occasion, although
never referencing JFK by
name. Take Him, Earth was
premiered at the ACDA
convention in March,
2013. Originally scored
for chorus and chamber
ensemble of nine
instruments (available on
a rental basis), Take
Him, Earth is presented
here in piano reduction.
For advanced choirs.
Duration: 13'.
When
Tim Sharp, Executive
Director of the American
Choral Directors
Association, very
kindlyoffered me the
Raymond W. Brock Memorial
Commission for 2013, he
suggested that because
thepremiere would take
place at the national
conference in Dallas in
the 50th year since the
assassinationof John F.
Kennedy in that city, the
text might refer in some
way to that grim
anniversary. Hesuggested,
too, that I consider
using a chamber ensemble
or chamber orchestra to
accompany thechorus.I
took these suggestions to
heart, but at the same
time I wanted to write
something universal
enoughto be appropriate
on other occasions, in
other settings. Thus the
score is dedicated to
PresidentKennedy’s
memory, but otherwise he
is never referred to by
name. Instead, I
assembled a group oftexts
that are associated with
him in some way, but that
also stand alone as a
more general eulogy.As a
refrain, there are a few
lines from the early
Christian burial hymn
that begins “Take
him,Earth, for
cherishing” — lines
that were earlier set to
music by Herbert Howells
in his classic
motetcommissioned for
Kennedy’s memorial
service in 1963. The
lines of Aeschylus
“Drop, drop — inour
sleep, upon the heart
sorrow falls” from
Agamemnon were quoted by
Robert F. Kennedy uponthe
death of Martin Luther
King in April 1968. The
celebrated “When he
shall die, cut him out
inlittle stars” from
Act III of
Shakespeare’s Romeo and
Juliet was cited by RFK a
few months after
hisbrother’s
murder.