Description

Concert Band
Grade 2
Duration 2:40

Program Notes:

My great aunt, Bennetta Benson, grew up in Gimli, Manitoba, Canada, the same lakeside small town as me, but at the beginning of the twentieth century. In 1933, at just 20 years old, she was training to be a nurse and studying tubercular spinal meningitis at Selkirk Hospital in Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada, when she contracted the disease and died that year. Because the town was so small and she died so young, her funeral was a widely attended, featuring an original piece for piano and voice by the town piano teacher, Frank Olson. It was called Brief Though Thy Sojourn and, to the best of my knowledge, has only ever been performed on that day.

Brief though thy sojourn
As in a meteor bright
Or, of a rose
That blooms and fades by night.
Cherished they mem’ry
Onward thy flight.
Forever onto a haven
Of eternal delight.

While sorting through my boxes in my grandmother’s house around 2012, my aunt brought this piece of manuscript paper to me, musty and yellowed with age. As a piece of rural Canadian history, I knew this story and piece can find new life as a chorale in the hands of young musicians.

Technical Considerations:

This chorale is accessible, but quite dense harmonically. It is a great opportunity to introduce chromatics in a slow and lyrical way while still building tone, resonance, and without demanding range requirements. Consider teaching concepts around sharps and flats as a unit alongside this piece, as most instruments have both. We know that certain instruments prefer flats while others prefer sharps, so this piece is a terrific vehicle to begin teaching facility and familiarity with both accidentals.

That being said, tone, balance, and blend are still paramount in a chorale like this. Focus on sound and ensemble unity first, then work some of the more technical harmonies.

There are four percussion parts for five people, but could certainly be played with fewer. If your percussion section has two timpani, there is one accessible retuning into the key change from F to Eb; if you have three timpani and would prefer not to retune, the Fs can be lowered an octave and played on the biggest drum.