music

SATB chorus
obbligato violin

duration 8'

first performance: Walnut Hill School Chamber Chorus, cond. William Wright /
Grace Church, Newton / May 1, 1992


TEXTS
The Ambitious Ant
The ambitious ant would a-travelling go,
To see the pyramid´s wonderful show,
He crossed a brook and a field of rye,
And came to the foot of a hatstack high.
“Ah! wonderful pyramid!” then cried he;
“How glad I am that crossed the sea!”
Amos R. Wells (1862–1933)


Antonio
Antonio, Antonio,
Was tired of living alonio.
He thought he would woo
Miss Lissamy Loo
Miss Lissamy Lucy Molonio.

Antonio, Antonio,
Rode off on his polo ponio.
He found the fair maid
In a bowery shade,
A-sitting and knitting alonio.

Antonio, Antonio,
Said “If you will be my ownio,
I´ll love you true,
And I´ll buy for you,
An icery creamery conio!”

“Oh, nonio, Antonio! . . .
You´re far too bleak and bonio!
And all that I wish,
You singular fish,
Is that you will quickly begonio.”

Antonio, Antonio,
He uttered a dismal moanio;
Then ran off and hid
(Or I´m told that he did)
In the Anticatarctical Zonio.
Laura E. Richards (1850–1943)


I May, I Might, I Must
If you will tell me why the fen
appears impassable, I then
will tell you why I think that I
can get across it if I try.
Marianne Moore (1887–1972)


A Tiger Tale
There was an ancient Grecian boy
Who played upon his fiddle,
Sometimes high, sometimes low,
Sometimes in the middle;
And all day long beneath the shade
He lunched on prunes and marmalade;
But what the tunes were which he played
Is certainly a riddle.

Three tigers gaunt and ravenous,
Came from the gloomy wood.
Intent to slay the fiddler,
But his music was too good;
So round about him once they filed,
Till, by the melody beguiled,
They sat them softly down and smiled,
As only tigers could.

And thus beguiled, those tigers smiled
Throughout the livelong day
Until, at length, there was not left
Another tune to play.

What happened then I do not know:
I was not there to see.
But when a man runs short of tunes,
Can tigers be appeased with prunes,
Or marmalade and silver spoons?
That´s what perplexes me.
John Bennett (1865–1956)


Dibidib
dibidib
Korean circle game