for earth’s sake

Texts

Promised Land
music by Matilda Durham, arr. Jennifer Lucy Cook

On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand,
And cast a wishful eye,
To Canaan's fair and happy land,
Where my possessions lie.

I am bound for the promised land,
I’m bound for the promised land,
O, who will come and go with me?
I am bound for the promised land.

No chilling winds, or poisonous breath
Can reach that healthful shore:
Sickness, and sorrow, pain, and death
Are felt and fear’d no more.

When I shall reach that happy place,
I’ll be forever blest
For I shall see my maker’s face,
And in that heart I’ll rest.

Blowin’ in the Wind
Music by Bob Dylan arr. Hilary Klapholz

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, ’n’ how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, ’n’ how many times must the cannonballs fly
Before they’re forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind

How many years can a mountain exist
Before it’s washed to the sea?Yes, ’n’ how many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free?
Yes, ’n’ how many times can a man turn his head
Pretending he just doesn’t see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind

How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, ’n’ how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, ’n’ how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind

Cavern
Words and Music by Dana K. Fiero

Serenity
seeping from the cavern
our eyes are closed
to the beauty bestowed on us

Everybody knows what’d been done
what’d been before
leading up until the hour
leading up until the day
the most beautiful sight in the world faded away
away away

Sublime heights
from the mountain tops
our ears are closed
to the calls for help from the earth

Mist
music by L. Autumn Gnadinger, poem by Henry David Thoreau

Low-anchored cloud,
Newfoundland air,
Fountain-head and source of rivers,
Dew-cloth, dream-drapery,
And napkin spread by fays;
Drifting meadow of the air,
Where bloom the daisied banks and violets,
And in whose fenny labyrinth
The bittern booms and heron wades;
Spirit of lakes and seas and rivers,—
Bear only perfumes and the scent
Of healing herbs to just men’s fields.

elegy for the earth
music by adam silverman, poems by susan gubernat

I. Migration of Millions

I put my child on my back,
began to walk.

I tied my child to my side
began to swim.

Gave everything to him,
this man I’d never met--
coyote, coyote.
And haven’t reached
the safe place yet.

And when there’s nowhere to go?
Nowhere to turn?
No maps to follow
as the earth burns.

The crops are as dead
as my mother and father.

My neighbor says don’t bother,
they’ll kill you soon.

We run from wars
bringing men
to our doors.
They rape our daughters,
steal our sons.

And when there’s nowhere to go?
Nowhere to turn?
No maps to follow
as the earth burns.

What are borders?
What are sea lanes?

What are countries
when the whole world is lost?

And when there’s nowhere to go?
Nowhere to turn?
No maps to follow
as the earth burns.

II. The Koch Foundation

On Alberta tar sands
the sound of shots fired
dances the birds off
Koch’s burning lands

Koch’s name at the center
Lincoln Center
The center of hell
His very own circle

Did you say dress circle?
Right this way.
Take your seats
At the David H. Koch
Auditorium

Right this way,
Take your seats
For Koch’s oily
Filthy
Swan Lake.

III. Whale Song

70 gray whales wash ashore
Great bellies empty
Along the California coast

70 gray whales wash ashore
Unable to feed
Along the California coast

Seventy: not a magic number
When a million
Species will go missing

Too soon, the death
Of creatures living now
The death of

70 gray whales
That washed ashore
Along the California coast

IV. Bee Death

Monsanto, Monsanto
like the world’s
evil beekeeper
blowing
toxic smoke
into the hives:

bees lose their way
back to the combs
back to the queen

and the queen dies alone

V. Fire Water/Fracking

The kitchen spigot
pours fire
into the little girl’s hand

Owww

How can she understand
Methane

VI. The New Doldrums

Once they feared
the “horse latitudes,”
the wide Sargasso Sea,
as the terrible places,
terrible places:

stallions thrown overboard
and slaves (O God!)
African slaves,
to lighten the load

commerce, commerce
always the tale of
money, and those
who make it,
and fail the world

Now ships quake
now fish ache
where gyres swell

and the garbage heap
of what we throw
away collects:

floating islands
of plastic waste
immortal

rising in seas
swamping beaches
eternally. But it’s

commerce, commerce
always the tale of
money, and those
who make it,
destroying the world.

VII. Anthropocene

Time to love the animal—fish
or bird--one that doesn’t love back
precisely,
doesn’t make eye contact

or nudge our toes, hump our shins
and beg, beg to be fondled
slavishly
in the manner of the tamed.

Time to bestow blessings like
Saint Francis statues in front
gardens
concretely
as so many species fade out,

while birds morph back into
dinosaurs.
We the fireball, we the destroyer
irrevocably.
Our thumbprints fossilized,
our tools rendered down to fern and
vine,
our numbers, words made magma
eternally
buried deep in the earth’s core.

VIII. Of Fossil Fuels

Children, there are monsters buried
deep in the earth

Leave them there

Tyrannosaurus Rex
Triceratops
Velociraptor
Stegosaurus
Brontosaurus
Dimetrodon
Diplodocus
Iguanodon
Pteranodon
Protoceratops,
Dilophosaurus
Spinosaurus
Brachiosaurus
Ankylosaurus

Children, monsters turning
into blackest ooze

Leave it there

Do not drill
for this fuel

deep in the earth deeper
deeper
deeper

Leave it there

Or you will lose
all the songs of the earth
songs of the earth

all of the earth

IX. World On Fire

From space, the earth
has shed its skirt
green, blue

From space, the earth
now swept by fire
burnt, nude

O marble eye
O caul of smoke
O mouth of flame

From earth the stars
have doused their light
dust now

From earth the moon
has taken flight
somehow

To earth the sun
has drawn so near
fields have burned
lakes have dried
forests disappear

O marble eye
O caul of smoke
O mouth of flame

Mercy Mercy Me by Marvin Gaye

Woah, ah mercy mercy me
Ah things ain't what they used to be, no no
Where did all the blue skies go?
Poison is the wind that blows
From the north and south and east

Woah mercy, mercy me,
Ah things ain't what they used to be
Oil wasted on the ocean and upon our seas
Fish full of mercury

Oh, mercy, mercy me
Ah things ain't what they used to be, oh no
Radiation under ground and in the sky
Animals and birds who live nearby are dying

Oh mercy, mercy me
Ah things ain't what they used to be
What about this overcrowded land
How much more abuse from man can she stand?

What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye, arr. Rollo Dilworth

Mother, mother
There's too many of you crying
Brother, brother, brother
There's far too many of you dying
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today - yeah

Father, father
We don't need to escalate
You see, war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today, oh

Picket lines (Sister) and picket signs (Sister)
Don't punish me (Sister) with brutality (Sister)
Talk to me (Sister), so you can see (Sister)
Oh, what's going on (What's going on)

What's going on (What's going on)
Yeah, what's going on (What's going on)
Oh, what's going on

Mother, mother, everybody thinks we're wrong
Oh, but who are they to judge us
Simply because our hair is long
Oh, you know we've got to find a way
To bring some understanding here today

Picket lines (Brother) and picket signs (Brother)
Don't punish me (Brother with brutality (Brother)
Talk to me (Brother), so you can see (Brother)
Oh, what's going on (What's going on)

More Waters Rising by Saro Lynch-Thomason arr. Saunder Choi

There are more waters rising - this I know, this I know
There are more waters rising - this I know
There are more waters rising, they will find their way to me
There are more waters rising - this I know , this I know
There are more waters rising - this I know
There are more fires burning...
There are more mountains falling...

I will wade through the waters...
I will wade through the waters, when they find their way to me…
I will walk through the fires…
I will walk through the fires, when they find their way to me…
I will rebuild the mountains…
I will rebuild the mountains, when they find their way to me…
I will rebuild the mountains – this I know

about mitos andaya hart

Mitos Andaya Hart has served as the Artistic Director of PhilHarmonia since 2014. She is the Associate Director of Choral Activities at Temple University where she conducts the Temple University Singers, works with undergraduate and graduate conductors, and teaches choral literature. Prior to her appointment at Temple, she served as Associate Director of Choral Activities at the University of Georgia where she was awarded one of the university’s

highest honors, the Richard B. Russell Undergraduate Teaching Award. Dr. Andaya Hart has taught choral and jazz at the university level in the United States, South Africa, and

Australia. She served as guest conductor of the Netherlands Chamber Choir in Amsterdam and Arnhem in 2007 and conducted the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir in concert at the Lund International Choral Festival in Sweden. Additionally, she has served as a guest conductor, master teacher, clinician and adjudicator nationally as well internationally in Germany, Kenya, and South Korea. Dr. Andaya Hart has served at the State level as ACDA R&S Chair for Jazz and also served President of the National Collegiate Choral Organization.

about adam silverman

Professor of music composition and theory at West Chester University, Adam Silverman (b. 1973, Atlanta, GA) is a composer of music for concert performance. Many of his works have entered the standard canon of percussion ensemble literature, including the quartets “Quick Blood,” “The Cruel Waters” and “Spiderweb Lead,” the octet “Sparklefrog,” and sextet “Naked And On Fire.” In the past decade, his work composing for wind symphony has produced several works for percussion soli with wind ensembles, starting with the widely-performed marimba concerto “Carbon Paper and Nitrogen Ink” and including works with drum kit soloist (“Zipzap”), a double concerto for two percussionists (“The Rule of Five”) and “Speaking Truth To Power, 2018” for four percussionists and wind band. His other works for winds include “Alien Robots Unite!,” “Raining Bricks,” “Hard Knocks,” and the saxophone concerto “Alternating Current,” which was premiered with Timothy McAllister as soloist. In addition to these works for percussion and wind ensemble, Silverman’s catalog also includes works for chamber ensemble, orchestra, and opera, and have been performed worldwide by such ensembles as The New York City Opera, The Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, The Opera Company of Brooklyn, Eighth Blackbird, The Corigliano Quartet, and The Prism Quartet. He also composed the score for “Little Fiel,” which blends stop-motion animation with filmed documentary; in 2018, this film had 50 screenings in 15 countries, winning many awards including Best Original Music at the Oregon Documentary Film Festival.

Four full-CD recordings of Silverman’s music are available and individual compositions of his have also appeared on CDs by the Temple University Wind Symphony, Prism Saxophone Quartet, cellist Amy Sue Barston, Trio Kavak, The Florida State University Percussion Ensemble, and others, all of which are widely available online.

Educated at Yale (Doctor of Musical Arts, 2003), The Vienna Musikhochschule (1994-1995), The University of Miami (Bachelor of Music, 1995) and in private study with microtonal composer Ben Johnston, Silverman is now an Old-Time music enthusiast, performing as an amateur on banjo, fiddle and mandolin. For more information visit adambsilverman.com

about susan gubernat

Susan Gubernat, poet and librettist, is the author of The Zoo at Night (Prairie Schooner book prize: University of Nebraska Press), Analog House (Finishing Line Press), and Flesh (The Marianne Moore Prize: Helicon Nine Editions). Her poems have appeared in Cimarron Review, Gargoyle, Michigan Quarterly, Prairie Schooner, Scoundrel Time, the San Francisco Chronicle, among others. She wrote the libretto for the opera “Korczak’s Orphans,” (composer: Adam Silverman). Gubernat holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Professor Emerita at California State University, East Bay, she has held artist residencies at Yaddo, MacDowell, the Millay Colony, and the VCCA. She lives in San Francisco where she is a member of the Writers Grotto.

about conservation voters of pa

Conservation Voters of PA is the statewide political voice for the environment. We work to elect environmentally responsible candidates to state and local offices. Working with our allies in the community, we advocate for strong environmental policies and hold our elected officials accountable during the legislative session. Through our political work, we are strengthening laws that safeguard the health of our communities, the beauty of our state, and our economic future. For more information visit https://www.conservationpa.org/