The Same Stream
SATB divisi | Duration c. 3'30"
The Same Stream was commissioned by Matt Koller and the Fort Myers High School Greenwave Singers for first performance in 2015. The piece features a text by the great Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore from his collection of poetry titled Gitanjali. This work is also found in an orchestrated version as part of the final movement of my large work, Endless, which is a more expansive setting of verses from Tagore's profound collection of devotional songs.
This work has become the flagship piece of music sung by the professional choir The Same Stream, which sings under the direction of James Jordan and is based in Philadelphia, PA. Click here to visit The Same Stream's website.
The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures
The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.
It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.
It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth and of death, in ebb and in flow.
I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life. And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.
- Rabindranath Tagore, 1861-1941
”Stream of Life,” verse 69 from Gitanjali, 1912