This piece for TTBB voices with oboe obbligato is a setting of the haunting poem by Madeleine L’Engle.  Originally intended for chorus, the vocal parts are quite challenging and the phrases are very long.  This recording is by MU’s wonderful quartet “Il Quattro” whose members are listed below, with George Donner on oboe.

Audio Recording Session, Summer 2017

Thomas: After Seeing the Wounds

Madeleine L’Engle

As you depended from a tree,

so depend I, Lord, on thee.

Thou my cross; on thee impaled

is my body. Now I see

how our hands and feet are nailed,

nailed by joy and nailed by pain:

strength of thine own scars remain.

Thou the cross from dark to sun,

stretching boughs to wind and rain,

upholding all, withholding none.

Lord, on thee do I depend.

Thy limbs hold me, heal me, mend

all unbelieving doubts. And now

I do not break, I bend, I bend:

thou hast made of me a bough.

As thou depended from a tree

so depend I, Lord, on thee.

Of thy body made a part

I was blind, and now I see:

all life and love are because thou art.

 

Clayton Marcum, tenor

Jake Svay, tenor

Matthew Grothouse, baritone

Michael Rueff, bass

George Donner, oboe

Haley Neilson, recording engineer (Summer 2017)

Recorded at Wine Recital Hall, Manchester University

North Manchester, Indiana