Texts and Translations for
“This is US”
PhilHarmonia Concert at the Free Library of Philadelphia
November 7, 2026 @ 1:30pm and 3:00pm
Alleluia - Shavon Lloyd
Agnus Dei - Samuel Barber
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, grant us peace.
Suite Justice - Melissa Dunphy
I. Voice
You have a secret Voice, always singing.
It is never still. It runs with your haste
And idles in your silence. It is everywhere.
O you, for whom this passionate Voice sings
And will not be silent, think now of those
For whom no voice sounds.
Oh, can you not hear that the song your Voice is singing
Is the song which is to bring that world of theirs
Into the light?
Why else do you imagine that this Voice is singing?
Why else do you imagine that the fire of love
Runs in your veins?
—Zona Gale, published in The Springfield Daily Republican, 15 Dec, 1929
II. Our Country
To all who hope for Freedom's gleam
Across the warring years,
Who offer life to build a dream
In laughter or in tears,
To all who toil, unmarked, unknown,
By city, field or sea,
I give my heart, I reach my hand,
A common hope, a common land
Is made of you and me.
For we have loved her summer dawns
Beyond the misty hill,
And we have shared her toil, her fruit
Of farm and shop and mill.
Our weaknesses have made her shame,
Our strength has built her powers,
And we have hoped and we have striven
That to her children might be given
A fairer world than ours.
We dreamed to hold her safe, apart
From strife; the dream was vain.
Her heart is now earth's bleeding heart,
Her pain the whole world's pain.
To those oppressed in all the lands
One flashing hope has gone,
One vision wide as earth appears,
We seek, across the warring years,
The gray world's golden dawn.
—Anise, published in The Seattle Union Record, 3 Nov, 1919
III. Novus ordo seclorum
The cycle of ages is born anew.
Justice returns to earth,
the Golden Age returns,
and its first-born comes down from heaven above.
Look kindly, chaste Lucina,
upon this infant's birth.
For with him shall hearts of iron cease,
and hearts of gold inherit the whole earth—
yes, Apollo reigns now.
—adapted from Vergil's Eclogue IV
IV. Youth
We have tomorrow
Bright before us
Like a flame
Yesterday
a night-gone thing,
A sun-down name.
And dawn to-day
Broad arch above the road we came.
We march!
—Langston Hughes, published in The Crisis, Aug 1924
Heart, not so heavy as mine - Elliott Carter
Heart, not so heavy as mine
Wending late home—
As it passed my window
Whistled itself a tune—
A careless snatch—a ballad—
A ditty of the street—
Yet to my irritated Ear
An Anodyne so sweet—
It was as if a Bobolink
Sauntering this way
Carolled, and paused, and carolled—
Then bubbled slow away!
It was as if a chirping brook
Upon a dusty way—
Set bleeding feet to minuets
Without the knowing why!
Tomorrow, night will come again—
Perhaps, weary and sore—
Ah Bugle! By my window
I pray you pass once more.
- Emily Dickinson
Who robbed the woods - Joseph Gregorio
Who robbed the woods,
The trusting woods?
The unsuspecting trees
Brought out their burrs and mosses
His fantasy to please.
He scanned their trinkets, curious,
He grasped, he bore away.
What will the solemn hemlock,
What will the fir-tree say?
- Emily Dickinson
maggie, milly, molly and may - Dolores White
maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach(to play one day)
and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,and
milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;
and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and
may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.
For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea
- e.e. cummings
Light of a Clear Blue Morning- Dolly Parton, arr. Craig Hella Johnson
It's been a long dark night
And I've been a waitin' for the morning
It's been a long hard fight
But I see a brand new day a dawning
I've been looking for the sunshine
You know, I ain't seen it in so long
And everything's gonna work out just fine
And everything's gonna be all right
It's gonna be okay
'Cause I can see the light of a clear blue morning
I can see the light of a brand new day
I can see the light of a clear blue morning
And everything's gonna be all right
It's gonna be okay
Unclouded DaY - Josiah K. Alwood, arr. Shawn Kirchner
Oh, they tell me of a home far beyond the skies
Oh, they tell me of a home far away
Oh, they tell me of a home where no storm clouds rise
Oh, they tell me of an unclouded day
Oh, the land of cloudless day
Oh, the land of an unclouded sky
Oh, they tell me of a home where no storm clouds rise
Oh, they tell me of an unclouded day
Oh, they tell me of a home where my friends have gone
Oh, they tell me of that land far away
Where the tree of life in eternal bloom
Sheds its fragrance through the unclouded day
Oh, the land of cloudless day
Oh, the land of an unclouded sky
Oh, they tell me of a home where no storm clouds rise
Oh, they tell me of an unclouded day
Oh, they tell me of a King in His beauty there
And they tell me that mine eyes shall behold
Where He sits on the throne that is whiter than snow
In the city that is made of gold
Oh, the land of cloudless day
Oh, the land of an unclouded sky
Oh, they tell me of a home where no storm clouds rise
Oh, they tell me of an unclouded day