The Earth Called To My Friend
by Elizabeth Alexander
SSA - Sheet Music

Item Number: 17613581
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Women's Chorus and Piano (SSA choir and piano) - Moderate

SKU: SF.SEA-057-00

Composed by Elizabeth Alexander. Community Chorus, High School Chorus, Concert Music. Funeral & Memorial Services, Native American, Grief & Loss, Secular, Choral. Octavo. With Text language: English. Duration 5 minutes. Published by Seafarer Press (SF.SEA-057-00).

Poem by Nancy Wood, "The Earth Called To My Friend".

A song of memorial that heartily embraces the vitality of life. With a lyric by Native American Nancy Wood and a sparkling musical setting by Elizabeth Alexander, this song celebrates life and death, rain and drought, and the cherished memory of "the wild old dances of our youth."

Commissioned by Ida and Jerry Franklin (Farmington, CT) Commissioned for the students of Union School, in memory of Alex Franklin

Text: The Earth called to my friend and he went, Deep into the Earth Root from which he came, Down into Blue Lake where our ancestors dwell, Deep into the heart of the Yellow Corn Maiden, To a place of beauty and light. I watched the sky for a long time and then I saw A cloud in the shape of my friend, Riding a fine white horse with wings so big They blotted out the sun, making shadows Across my withered fields of corn. I called to my friend to ask if he was happy And if he knew more than when he left. I called out his name and blessed him With an eagle feather, dancing in his behalf The wild old dances of our youth. Good-bye, my friend, I said, watching the clouds Crumble into little pillows that fell as rain Into the dryness of my fields. "The Earth Called To My Friend" Copyright 1972 by Nancy Wood From "Hollering Sun," Simon & Schuster, 1972. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of the author.