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My Friend Elijah
SATB a
cappella version published by
Walton Music Publishing,
Catalog # WJMS1088 (to order, use HL08501621) 
SATB a cappella
SSAA/piano (ask about availabilty)
Text in English by Natalie Goldberg
Duration: 4½ minutes Difficulty rating (1-5): 3 I'm really excited that Walton is publishing this piece. The choirs who have sung it in manuscript have really enjoyed both the incredibly creative, unusual text by Natalie Goldberg and my music, which is a quasi-spiritual in the Moses Hogan vein but with a twist of swing. In a recent performance, the Michigan 2006 All-State Honors Choir, directed by Sharon Hansen, really rocked on this piece. SATB premiere
performance by The Grinnell College Singers,
directed by John Rommereim, on Feb 27, 2005 in
Grinnell, Iowa SSAA/piano version premiered by Vox Caelestis
Women's Chorus, directed by Paul Carey on March
5, 2005 in Oak Park, IL
I wandered into a small bookstore in Oak Park and was leafing through the poetry books and happened upon a collection of poems by Natalie Goldberg, at that time unknown to me (Natalie is also a painter and is a New Yorker transplanted to Taos, New Mexico). I was immediately attracted to this poem, which for all its seeming silliness early on, becomes more serious toward the end. Goldberg uses "my friend Elijah" as a symbol for
Jewish tradition. As an entry point she evokes the
Seder tradition of leaving out food for Elijah at
Passover ("my friend Elijah never came to my house
to drink wine in April") but then continues on to
cleverly examine all the other
things, including non-kosher activities, which he
wouldn't choose to do if he were to live in
today's world. The poem becomes more serious as
she paints the exhilarating, terrifying earthquake
and storm world of a prophet, and the poem and the
music climaxes when she tells us that "Elijah saw
God." Truly a tour de force poem, something you
aren't expecting when earlier on she talks about
Oreo cookies! (The reference, for the curious, is
that Oreos are a non-kosher food.)
The students at Grinnell College, where the piece
was premiered, really got into serious discussions
of what they thought the poem meant. I loved the
fact that they discussed it in such earnestness
and that it had different meanings for different
people, truly the mark of a great poem, in my
opinion. And you certainly have to love a poem
that mentions Oreo cookies.
In setting the piece I immediately felt that the
text cried out for a setting in a spiritual form,
a la someone like the late, great Moses Hogan. By
the time Elijah is swaying with the shadows, the
music has arrived at a full tilt gospel shout. The
high point musically, however, is when Elijah sees
God, which I have set in an ascending, repeated
way, with a fermata on the highest chord sung fff. In performance this point has been truly
breathtaking to singers and audiences alike. From
there Elijah and the music fade into the gentle
dying light of evening after the storms have
passed.
I found out through John Rommereim,
the Grinnell Singers' director, that this turned
out to be the the unofficial tour bus song on
their Spring 2005 tour. Bits and pieces of it
would be belted out at random times on the bus --
hey, we all know what touring can do to your
brain!
More from
some choir members: Dear Paul, I am a soprano in the Wolf River Singers [directed by Ben Legett, website at www.wolfriversingers.org and had the pleasure of performing My Friend Elijah in our concert this past weekend. I think the piece was the audience favorite and certainly was the singers favorite! We had fun learning it and enjoyed every note. Thanks for writing such a great piece! I'm off to put on wool socks and eat some oreos! Sherry Thompson
TEXT
(from the collection Top of
my Lungs)
My friend Elijah never came to
my house to drink wine in
April
He never bought Oreo cookies
or wool socks
Elijah saw birds crack open in
the night
and field mice split the sides
of mountains
My friend Elijah never got
mail, was overweight
or smelled perfume silk or
roses
Oh Elijah swayed with shadows
heard the voice where no voice
was
saw the fire where it was cool
and calm
and shattered in earthquakes
where no earthquakes slept
My friend Elijah didn’t read
the Torah or milk a cow
My friend Elijah bought no
salt and never shopped on
Saturday
Elijah saw God and came home
quiet and still
after evening storms.
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| PAUL CAREY
composer / conductor All materials and information on this site © 2008 Paul Carey and respective music publishers No part of this site or its contents may be reproduced without written consent. 
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