Ben Tibbetts Studio: Piano Performances and Original Music

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When Love Beckons To You

Listen to a live recording

When love beckons to you
You should follow him
Though his ways are hard and steep

And when he speaks to you
Believe in him
Though his voice may shatter your dreams

For even as love crowns you
So shall he crucify you

Even as he ascends to your height
And caresses your tenderest branches
That quiver in the sun
So shall he descend to your roots
And shake them in their clinging to the earth

Love has no other desire
But to fulfill itself

When I was in college, I got a SURF grant over the summer of 2010. SURF stood for "Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship". They would give you a few thousand dollars to take a summer off from work and pursue a project that interested you. It provided an opportunity to explore some part of your field that interested you. I got a SURF grant to write an oratorio based on Kahlil Gibran's "The Prophet", and I spent the summer of 2010 working on that. I wrote about 30-35 minutes of music that season.

That was a very difficult project for me. Unfortunately, it was probably too ambitious for one summer. I pushed myself to write music that was sophisticated by comparison with what I was doing before, but most of that piece I wouldn't consider publishable today. It's a bit of a mess. The libretto was too long and it was hard to set.

There are a few parts I like, though. One of the sections that came out well was this aria called When Love Beckons To You for countertenor, piano, and organ. This combination of instruments is unusual and beautiful. I enjoy the harmonic flavor of this song, which uses major seconds in an interesting way. That aspect of it was influenced by Benjamin Britten's bizarre, hypnotic piece, Rejoice In The Lamb.

The recording on this page is by countertenor Ryan Sheehan, pianist Elizabeth Blood, and myself on the organ. To download sheet music for this piece, please become a subscriber to this website.

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