Reach Down, Lord
Reach Down Lord
Kyle Pederson (2023)
Movement I of A Vision Unfolding
SATB, Music by Kyle Pederson
Text by Robert Bode
Instrumentation: piano
Text:
Reach down, Lord.
Reach your justice down.
When we walk on the broken road,
Reach your justice down.
If we stumble into the pit
And the dark is all we see,
Reach below and lift us up;
Reach your justice down.
Reach down, Lord.
Reach your justice down.
When we walk in the shadow of death,
Reach your justice down.
Commissioned by:
Sponsoring Members
Festival Singers of Florida, directed by Dr. Kevin Fenton
Tennessee Tech University, directed by Dr. Craig Zamer
University of Dayton, directed by Dr. Steven Hankle
Participating Members
VocalEssence, directed by Philip Brunelle and G. Phillip Shoultz, III
University of Mississippi, directed by Dr. Donald Trott
Northwest Missouri State University, directed by Dr. Adam Zrust
Florida State University, directed by Dr. Kevin Fenton
PROGRAM NOTE:
The poet is asking God’s spirit to reach down and lift us up—lift us out of the pit, out of the darkness, and lift us to the light...lift us up to wholeness. In the spoken word that precedes this movement, Shanelle Gabriel does something important: the narrator asks not only God to reach down—but the narrator challenges the listener to reach down...to get into the mess with those who are hurting and to lift them up. So when the choir sings the refrain, Reach Down, Lord, we hear not only a cry to God, but also an invitation to all of us, to reach down—and out—to another.
Optional Spoken Word:
This piece is the first movement in A Vision Unfolding, and is preceded by a spoken word prologue. In this spoken word the narrator asks not only God to reach down—but the narrator challenges the listener to reach down...to get into the mess with those who are hurting and to lift them up. So when the choir sings the refrain, Reach Down, Lord, we hear not only a cry to God, but also an invitation to all of us, to reach down—and out—to another.