Song of the Open Road

Description

A Song of the Open Road

SATB mixed chorus, piano
3′ duration
1994
Text: Walt Whitman
Premiere—1994, by One Voice Mixed Chorus, Paul Siskind, conductor, Saint Paul, MN.
Published by Yelton Rhodes Music: Yelton Rhodes Music.

Text

Allons! the road is before us!
It is safe—I have tried it—my own feet have tried it well—be not detain’d!
Let the paper remain on the desk unwritten, and the book on the shelf unopen’d!
Let the tools remain in the workshop! let the money remain unearn’d!
Let the school stand! mind not the cry of the teacher!
Let the preacher preach in his pulpit!
Let the lawyer plead in the court, and the judge expound the law.

Camerado, I give you my hand!
I give you my love more precious than money,
I give you myself before preaching or law;
Will you give me yourself? will you come travel with me?
Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?

Walt Whitman