How Can I Keep from Singing?

SATB and Organ | Duration c. 4’45”

Hewitt Hill Music

This arrangement of the well-known hymn by Robert Lowry was commissioned by the choirs of Davidson College Presbyterian Church as a surprise for their director of music Jane Dimmock Cain, who retires in 2020 after over forty years of serving the community. In researching Jane’s work, I was able to find an excerpt of her playing the Toccata from Charles-Marie Widor’s Symphony No. 5 on her home organ at Davidson College Presbyterian Church at the end of an Easter service in 2014. What struck me about this video, aside from Jane’s wonderful performing, was the fact that so many remained to listen to the recessional, offering a robust round of applause afterward. Jane’s influence on her community is clearly significant, and there is no doubt in my mind that she will be missed.

How Can I Keep from Singing?, which I am told is Jane’s favorite hymn text, has been partially reharmonized in this arrangement to bring a more bittersweet quality to the tune. I can only imagine that leaving a post after such a term would be accompanied by a range of emotions – I have done my best to incorporate some of what I think that might be like. The near-constant sixteenth notes from Widor’s Toccata have also been incorporated (perhaps in a more ‘liquid’ fashion), in keeping with that timeless line of poetry: “My life flows on in endless song…”