Choose the Light 2: THE PAINTING

Instrumentation

as above

Score, download - 13.17MB

Other Information

THE WORDS OF CHOOSE THE LIGHT

Choose The Light´ is a phrase culled from the young people´s writing. It perfectly expresses the complex moral choices that face all of us, and the importance of seeking peace and reconciliation. Choose the Light begins with words of the medieval hymn, Dies Iræ, the Day of Wrath, and ends with a setting of lines based on the Coventry Litany of Reconciliation written after the Cathedral was bombed in 1940, which we use with the permission of the Cathedral. The shift from the aggressive and forceful music of the Dies Iræ to the tender and merciful Litany maps the move from anger to reconciliation and peace. Between them come the songs of the individual schools. The piece begins with the appeal to ´Choose the Light´ almost overwhelmed by the Dies Iræ, the thirteenth-century Latin hymn describing the Day of Judgement, when the last trumpet will summon souls before the throne of God, the saved will be delivered and the doomed cast into eternal flames.

THE SCHOOL SONGS: Earlsdon Primary School - The Painting

1. As we walk into the church

And look up we see that saver of lives,

The painting that changed us all:

It´s famous and in all archives;

2. As we slowly pace our way,

Calmly savouring the beauty,

A painting so bold yet ancient,

Still here like an old movie.

3. The choir´s words echo around

As we walk to our seats,

And look up at the scene before us,

The last thing that Jesus eats.

4. “Praise the Lord, forgive us of sin,

Erase all the sorrow.

Hope that all the wrong we did

Will be forgotten tomorrow.”

5. As Jesus the Lord shines light on us,

Looking down for us all,

As the choir´s voices fill us with joy,

The sound bouncing off the walls;

6. As we come out of the church,

Neat and smart and dressed in Sunday best,

We remember that our Lord Jesus

Is with us deep in our chest.

7. In our heart he lives with us,

Ev´ry minute lighting up all our lives;

But if not for that colourful painting

His love can still remind.

8. “Praise the Lord, forgive us of sin,

Erase all the sorrow.

Hope that all the wrong we did

Will be forgotten tomorrow.”