Laura Nevitt

Audio Available

Component

Delivery

Eprint Folders

Grade

Item Sequence

Large Print Edition

Marketed Status

Minimum Sell Quantity

MINTS Data Available

Product Line

Prop65

Score Available

Video Available

Voice

Voice Category

Voice Subcategory

A unison arrangement for treble voices, guitar or piano (chords provided), and violin (or other C instrument). Perfect for young choirs who want to sing something simple but beautiful and elevated.

Scarborough Fair

Unison

A lovely arrangement of the classic lullaby. Unison - perfect for a young choir, with beautiful violin and piano accompaniment.

All the Pretty Little Horses

A simple, yet elegant arrangement of a classic folk song with violin, flute, and piano. Perfect for young choirs.

Shenandoah

Program Notes:
This poem, and thus this song, is all about a memory. A memory of the shore - the ocean - with a young love, now lost. For what reason, we are not sure. Are we returning to this place in physical reality, or only in our thoughts? Are we returning for the first time in years, or do we visit it frequently? All we know is that we are abruptly interrupted by the reminder that "nevermore shall I return to take you by the hand." The music lingers out of time - in a bubble, before returning to the overlapping of the waves and our thoughts, never to truly settle or rest.

-Laura Nevitt




Text:
I shall go back again to the bleak shore
And build a little shanty on the sand
In such a way that the extremest band
Of brittle seaweed will escape my door
But by a yard or two, and nevermore
Shall I return to take you by the hand;
I shall be gone to what I understand
And happier than I ever was before. 
The love that stood a moment in your eyes,
The words that lay a moment on your tongue,
Are one with all that in a moment dies,
A little under-said and over-sung;
But I shall find the sullen rocks and skies
Unchanged from what they were when I was young.

-Edna St. Vincent Millay


This text is in the public domain.

I Shall Go Back Again

SSAA

Format

Composer’s Note:
“A Movement Begins” sets the words of Sarah Bagley and other
miscellaneous sources from the 1840’s labor movement in Lowell, MA.
Throughout the song, you can hear the sounds and rhythms of spindles
humming and slowing down. The text “our rights, our lives” pervades
throughout the piece, and becomes more dominant as the piece goes on.
There is a sense of redundancy in the musical and textual patterns that
occur, much like the lives of these women - before they decide to slow
the loom, and begin a movement.
-Laura Nevitt

A Movement Begins

SSSSAAA Octavo

A lively classic folk song arranged for acoustic guitar (or piano) and flute (or other C instrument). Great piece for younger elementary students.

Sarasponda

Laura Nevitt is the composer of "Passing Over" with original poetry by Fayaz Kabani. It was written for Nightingale Vocal Ensemble.

"It was a pleasure setting Fayaz Kabani’s poem to music. As you can hear, the poem slowly shifts from a place of longing to belonging. The harmony of the song begins dissonantly to reflect this emotion, and, with each verse, becomes more consonant and pleasing to the ear. Throughout the piece, four of the voices sing the word “longing” as an accompaniment to duets between the other singers.  The piece concludes on an major chord, solidifying a sense of belonging before leading to the final piece on the concert." -Laura

Passing Over

SSATBB Octavo

A lively, upbeat unison arrangement of a Hungarian Folk Song that is perfect for young singers.

Come and Sing Together

An intense, lively piece with lots of cascading echoed lines. Would be a great opener or closer to a concert. 


Program Notes:

	This song was commissioned by Lilith Vocal Ensemble in 2022, and premiered in their program Sirens:Our Song Is Powerful in March of 2023. I wrote it to reflect how, just as it is absurd to imagine easily putting a fire out, or folding a flood in a drawer, so absurd it is to think anyone can put the fire of our passion out. Our community of women and gender non-conforming folks cannot be put out or put away in a drawer. Our voices are strong, and will be heard.

-Laura Nevitt, composer




Text:
 
(530)
You cannot put a Fire out - 
A Thing that can ignite
Can go itself, without a Fan - 
Upon the slowest Night - 

You cannot fold a Flood - 
And put it in a Drawer - 
Because the Winds would find it - 
And tell your cedar floor - 

-Emily Dickinson

A Thing that can ignite

SSSAAA

Poe says in the last line - "What care I how time advances? I am drinking." This piece presents an Edgar Allan Poe poem about ale backwards - starting with the last line, and ending with the first. It then presents the poem in the correct order, but with the lines falling over each other. Throughout the piece you can feel the uneasiness of the music as they experience their drinks.

SSATB Octavo

The text for "Clean Air and Clean Water" is extracted from the words of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez during a House Financial Services Committee Meeting in March of 2019. I took parts of the speech and worked to form it into a poetic framework, and with a coherent theme throughout. A slow and somewhat ominous chord progression stays consistent throughout the piece - a reminder that climate change is slow moving, but always present - there is no avoiding this. Reminders that "we are going to pay" are scattered throughout the work.
 AOC's impassioned speech came after Congressman Sean Duffy argued that the Green New Deal would increase the total cost of housing for lower income earners and the homeless. He said, and I quote: "If you're a rich liberal from maybe New York or California, it sounds great because you can afford to retrofit your home or build a new home that has zero emissions, that's energy efficient."

Text:
This is not an elitist issue. 
This is a quality of life issue. 
You want to tell people that
their concern and their desire
for clean air and clean water is elitist?

People are dying.
This is about our lives -
American lives,
and it should not be partisan.
Science should not be partisan.

We talk about cost - 
We're going to pay for this 
Whether we pass a Green New Deal or not.
Because towns and cities go underwater,
as wildfires ravage our communities,
we are going to pay.

We are facing a national crisis.
And if we do not ascend to that crisis
then I don't know what we're doing here. 


This text is in the public domain.

Clean Air and Clean Water

SSAATTBB Full Score

Global Sections - CORE [DO NOT TOUCH]*

Favicon

Need Help? Contact Us or call 1-800-345-6296    Live Chat

Header

Don't have a business account? Create one

Products