Happy US Semiquincentennial! I’m celebrating with a free score.
I composed this a cappella choral score in 2025 and it is currently unperformed. It’s a setting of Emma Lazarus’ famous poem “The New Colossus” – as inscribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty.
For the remainder of 2026, it is free to download and perform. I only request that you let me know if you’re programming it!
Composer’s Statement:
To me, there is no poem that more concisely animates the American ideals than Emma Lazarus’s The New Colossus. Engraved on a plaque on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, the poem expresses the intent of a country still finding itself.
Our country, young as it is, is still searching. We often fall short, but these ideals still inspire and still animate the better angels of our nature.
My intent with this piece is to express that searching nature through the harmonic richness and a pluralistic approach to musical themes. The harmony doesn’t always get to the goal right away – it takes unexpected detours into new key centers – but it is always aiming towards a final triumphant D Major chord.
The most important lines of the sonnet are surely “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free.” I chose to anticipate them throughout key cadential points, and then to repeat the phrase multiple times, ever building, ever more resolute. In this section the harmony is adapted from Purcell’s When I Am Laid – an iconic art song from Dido and Aeneas, a story of refugees being welcomed to a new land.