Gentle Joseph Heard a Warning

This anthem for TB voices and organ was written for the 108th annual Christmas Carol Services at the Memorial Church, Harvard University. Carl Daw's text uses Joseph's warning and the flight into Egypt as a metaphor for the welcoming of the stranger among us: "Let us see in every stranger refugees from Bethlehem." Carson Cooman's music begins with the troubled atmosphere of warning and flight before gradually building to an exultant and affirmative conclusion.