elizabethsheppardmusic.com

30 Jul 2023

“We Are Your Witnesses” at St Johns Cathedral Evensong, Brisbane, 30 July 2023

https://www.youtube.com/live/B_VDdNG_18o?feature=share
Evensong from St Johns Cathedral Brisbane.

St Johns Cathedral Choir, Brisbane, Australia, conducted by Graeme Morton. Photo Credit: Graeme Morton & St Johns Cathedral Brisbane.

The Choral Evensong Service of 30 July 2023 at St Johns Cathedral Brisbane, livestreamed on the St Johns Cathedral YouTube channel, will include my SATB Indigenous anthem “We Are Your Witnesses” as the Introit. Thanks to Music Director Graeme Morton for this commission. The anthem lyrics (see below) and Graeme’s program note (quoted below) are printed in the Cathedral Evensong Program, available on the Cathedral website.

The SATB score of “We Are Your Witnesses” is available at http://www.scoreexchange.com Click on the link below to see it:

https://www.scoreexchange.com/scores/602807.html

“Tonight’s Introit: This evening the choir is giving the premiere performance of “We Are Your Witnesses” by Indigenous Australian composer Elizabeth Sheppard. This piece was commissioned by the Queensland Branch of the Royal School of Church Music. Sheppard, who also wrote the words of the piece, describes the work as: “A Song in Acknowledgement of the courageous, faithful, combined contribution of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Church Communities of Australia, led by Elders past, present and emerging, that guides us to a better future”.”

We Are Your Witnesses

From an ancient land, O Lord of life,
children of this earth
we reach out to your Kingdom.
Your Word resounds across the seas,
the ends of the earth, to Terra Spiritus Sancti.
For your covenant is like a jarrah tree,
Standing proud and tall, bearing fragrant leaves,
giving shade to all, rooted deep and sure,
drinking hidden streams from your hearland’s law.
We remember, Lord, your great sacrifice,
how you died and rose, overcoming death,
sent your Holy Spirit to be with us now,
as you promised, Lord, to your Apostles.
We are your witnesses, we are your disciples,
arising through your power, Lord,
we are children of God.
We are your witnesses, we are your disciples,
lifred by your power, Lord, we are with you now,
in Terra Spiritus Sancti.

Published by

Elizabeth Sheppard

Australian composer Elizabeth Sheppard’s music is recorded and broadcast by the ABC, and released on ABC CDs, Universal Music Australia, Hyperion, 1equalmusic, Spotify and iTunes. She is an Arts, Philosophy and Theology graduate, an accredited Cathedral Cantor, a music graduate of Eora Aboriginal College, an Aboriginal Law / Aboriginal Studies graduate of Tranby IAE College, and a graduate of the Australian National University’s Ngarra Burria First Peoples Composers Program, currently studying Postgraduate composition at the Australian National University. In October 2022 her mainstage a capella oratorio music on the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart, commissioned by The Song Company for Songs from the Heart, was toured to Canberra, Sydney, Newcastle, Parramatta and Wollongong, streamed on the Australian Digital Concert Hall and released internationally on a Hyperion CD by 1equalmusic. The Australia Arts Council awarded a $25,000 grant for a second 2023 tour of Sheppard’s Songs from the Heart music. Sheppard’s forthcoming music includes Karollini Christmas (an album of ten new Australian Christmas carols), Minninup Pool (a string quartet), Mana Dharook (a chamber orchestra symphony), and Bina Benang (a song cycle).

Categories: music

Share this:

Leave a comment Cancel reply