By the Waters: SATB Choral Octavo
Words based on Psalm 137, music and additional words by Dave and Jean Perry
Item: 00-PO-0003198
$1.90
Minimum order quantity: 20 copies
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Description
A haunting, minor-mode melody is passed through the choir in this fugue treatment of an expressive psalm text. What begins as artful simplicity develops into lush polyphony. "By the waters of Babylon, we sat down and wept."
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Additional Details
Series:
Alfred Choral Designs
Publisher:
Alfred Music
Page Count:
12
SKU:
00-PO-0003198
More about this title
Why we love this
Perry's fugal treatment transforms a psalm text into something that feels both intellectually rigorous and emotionally devastating. The arc from simple melody to intricate polyphony gives your singers a real structural journey to inhabit, and the minor tonality sits naturally in the voice without requiring extreme range or technical pyrotechnics.
What to expect
The haunting minor melody opens like a lament, familiar and immediate. As voices layer in, the texture deepens and the emotional weight shifts from personal grief to something communal and timeless, building to moments of genuine polyphonic beauty.
Who it's for
Advanced high school or college choirs with secure part-singing skills and comfort with fugal writing. The piece rewards choirs that have experience tracking independent melodic lines and can sustain expressive singing across longer harmonic progressions.
How to get the most out of it
- Enter each voice part cleanly and distinctly during the fugal exposition; the artful simplicity at the opening depends entirely on precise attacks and releases.
- Shape the minor-mode melody with natural phrasing that honors the psalm text; avoid letting the sadness become flat or directionless.
- Balance the lush polyphonic passages by thinking of each voice line as a countermelody rather than harmonic filler; every part sings something worth hearing.
How to use it
Pair this with other sacred texts or laments to create a thematic concert set, or position it as a reflective anchor in a larger program. Its twelve pages and moderate length make it flexible for both a full concert context and a shorter sacred music set.
Skills your students will build
- Fugal voice entry and independence
- Singing minor-mode melody with expressive shape
- Tracking multiple independent lines in polyphonic texture
- Coordinate attacks and releases across four parts
- Sustain long harmonic progressions without losing pitch stability