Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.
For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come,
And the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land.
Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.
PDF: Rise_Up_My_Love-sample.pdf
I wrote “Rise Up” as a 40th wedding anniversary gift for my wife Carol. The date was August 10, 2009, the day after our daughter Rebecca’s wedding. She and her husband had departed on their honeymoon; the rest of Carol’s clan were at a lake resort in southwestern Michigan. I and our sons Adam and Josh, both accomplished singers, rehearsed in secret for an hour or so, and we sang the piece after dinner, achieving total surprise.
Since then, “Rise Up” has received several performances, no doubt having to do in part with its brevity. In 2010 it was performed at the Shalshelet Festival. (Shalshelet’s mission is to promote new Jewish choral music.) Carmina Early Music Ensemble also performed it at a concert of choral music rooted in the Renaissance, and I was simultaneously humbled and proud to have my piece sandwiched between those of Brahms and Samuel Barber. Rise Up has also been performed in concerts at Mishkan Torah Synagogue and by the Kolot Halev choir.
“Rise Up” indeed has the structure of a Renaissance motet, and the beginning and ending verses are in a modal scale and of 16th-century harmony, but the rest is far more modern. The meter varies between 5/8 and 7/8 so as to fit the non-strophic poetry.
I did some text-painting, first with descending chromatics on “the winter is past” and then with an acute German 6th modulation from G Major to F♯ Major on “The flowers appear.” Another German 6th gets us to B♭ Major and the turtle doves, then back to G Major.
That’s quite a bit to pack into less than a minute of music.