poor hymnal by David Lang & The Crossing

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝑝𝑜𝑜𝑟 ℎ𝑦𝑚𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝐢𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫, 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐘𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐭 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐧 𝐂𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧 𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐚𝐲, 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟏, 𝐚𝐭 𝟕:𝟑𝟎 𝐩.𝐦., 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐏𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐩𝐡𝐢𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟎 & 𝟐𝟐.

Like his Pulitzer-winning work the little match girl passion, David Lang’s 𝘱𝘰𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘺𝘮𝘯𝘢𝘭 tries to get to the core of what a religious experience can be. “What I love about hymnals,” the composer writes in his liner notes to the CD, “is that they’re a catalog of things a community of worshippers can agree on — a catalog that can be sung. And what the worshippers are singing about matters.”

𝘱𝘰𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘺𝘮𝘯𝘢𝘭 is a concert-length work written for the multiple GRAMMY Award-winning chamber choir The Crossing, conducted by Donald Nally. Lang constructed the text by stitching together lines, phrases and poignant utterances from sources as varied as the Old Testament, Mahatma Gandhi and Tolstoy — to name just a few. As Lang explains: “This piece is trying to say: The reason we are coming together is to remember how important we are to each other, and to remember how important it is that we take care of each other.”

Tracklist

1.	I saw a poor man	2:44

2.	open your hands (after deuteronomy 15)	3:14

3.	our hearts tell us (after psalm 27 and mahatma gandhi)	6:02

4.	all who are hungry (after the passover haggadah)	3:37

5.	the least of us (after leviticus 19 and matthew 25)	3:51

6.	I know I should (after h. a. walter)	3:58

7.	if you close your ear (after proverbs 21:13)	4:03

8.	prayer for kindness	3:19

9.	what is mine (after elizabeth warren, barack obama, and saint basil)	4:45

10.	take nothing with you (after luke 9:3)	3:30

11.	what remains (after the sayings of the fathers and matthew 6)	3:37

12.	things that never fail (after 1 corinthians 13)	4:08

13.	I saw a poor man - choral return	2:48

14.	wherever charity is (after tolstoy, after ubi caritas)	4:26

Credits

released December 13, 2024

Produced by Paul Vazquez, Donald Nally, and Kevin Vondrak
Recording Engineer: Paul Vazquez
Assistant Recording Engineers: Christopher Vazquez and Codi Yhap
Editing, Mixing, and Mastering: Paul Vazquez

Recorded at Articulate Studios, Bloomsbury, NJ on December 18-20, 2023

poor hymnal was co-commissioned for The Crossing and Donald Nally by Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting, Jill and Loren Bough, and Peggy and Mark Curchack, and by the Nederlands Kamerkoor.

The premiere performance and recording of poor hymnal are made possible through the generous support of Carol Westfall.

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