Boston Children's Chorus: selections from Zhou Long's Madame White Snake

Anthony Trecek-King, President and Artistic Director

On this CD, you’ll hear the top-level Premier Chorus and Young Men’s Ensemble perform a varied selection of compositions inspired by nature and the changes brought about each year by the seasons. Joshua Shank’s beautiful song cycle depicts the sounds of the seasons with striking poetry and washes of impressionistic color. Stephen Feigenbaum’s “Home” is sung from the perspective of a young child who imagines herself to be the sun in even the darkest seasons of her mother’s life. The selections for children’s chorus from Zhou Long’s Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Madame White Snake feature delicate and at times playful musings on the seasons in China. 

1. Spring
Music by Joshua Shank
Text by Sara Teasdale 

2. Summer

Music by Joshua Shank
Text by Robert Ressler

3. Autumn
Music by Joshua Shank
Text by Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Edward Snow

4. Winter

Music by Joshua Shank
Text adapted from e.e. cummings

5. Home
Music by Stephen Feigenbaum
Text by Elisa Gonzalez

6. Snow by Morning
Music by Joshua Shank
Text by May Swenson 

7. Spring Song (from Madame White Snake)
Music by Zhou Long
Text by Cerise Lim Jacobs

8. Summer Song (from Madame White Snake)
Music by Zhou Long
Text by Cerise Lim Jacobs

9. Autumn Song (from Madame White Snake)
Music by Zhou Long
Text by Cerise Lim Jacobs

10. Winter Song (from Madame White Snake)
Music by Zhou Long
Text by Cerise Lim Jacobs

11. Flower of Beauty 
Music by John Clements
Text by Sydney Bell

12. Im Wald (from Gartenlieder, Op. 3 No. 6)
Music by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel
Text by Emanuel von Geibel

13. Amazing Grace
Traditional, arr. Jackson Berkey
Text by John Newton