Performance noteSuitable for university and other advanced choirs.
By the Rivers of Babylon is a setting of Psalms 137:1-4. It expresses the sadness and yearnings of the Jewish people who were in exile following the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem in 586 BC. The first three verses of the psalm describe their sadness as they remember their homeland and as they are mockingly asked to sing the "songs of Zion." They refuse to do this, leaving their harps hanging upon the willows for, "How shall we sing the LORD's song in a strange land?"
Like a bending river, the flowing lines of the music weave their way through this story of grief, anger, mocking, sadness, and remembrance.
By the Rivers of Babylon was selected as one of the finalists out of ~600 submissions for the inaugural Rocky Mountain Chamber Choir choral competition.
1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
2 We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.
3 For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
4 How shall we sing the LORD's song in a strange land?
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