I wrote this anthem for the singers of Princeton Pro Musica, at the suggestion of Dee Dee Miles, PPM’s Chorus Manager, when we felt the ensemble could use a song of its own. It is dedicated to the singers of Princeton Pro Musica and to their Artistic Director, Ryan Brandau. The text is a poem of my own making, titled “Pro Musica,” and it plays on the literal meaning of the ensemble’s name, “for the sake of the music,” which I extend with the old Latin motto ars longa, vita brevis (“art is long, life is short”). It is scored for SATB chorus a cappella, but with an optional piano or organ doubling, like a church hymn.

The setting is in C major, with a deliberately straightforward melody. The texture is entirely homophonic throughout, with no counterpoint of any kind, in keeping with its communal character. It opens with a simply harmonized roll-call of the places the ensemble’s hundred-odd singers call home: five counties in central and southern New Jersey, and Bucks County in nearby Pennsylvania. Call and response between female and male voices complete the geography tour. Then, at “singing as one instrument,” the voices turn to unison arpeggios to illustrate unity, and prepare for what is to come.

What follows is a choral treatment of the choir’s own rehearsal warm-ups. The syllables, “ee-oh-ee-oh-ee” and “doo-dee-dee-dee-doo” represent vocalises that PPM singers will recognize at once, here set in harmony rather than the unison of the rehearsal room. The text then turns from play to purpose: “No longer nonsense phrases, but how we hone our art, tiny windows into what we came to do.” Though the anthem carries no written dynamics (in the manner of a hymn), a natural build gathers here as every voice takes up eighth-note energy, arriving at a dramatic 4–3 suspension in the alto on “came to do.”

The group’s name, Pro Musica, then rings out in unison with tenuto accents, and repeats in harmony as the text translates its own meaning: “for the sake of the music do we sing.” The added motto, ars longa, vita brevis, is likewise declared in unison before breaking into harmony at “so let’s merry music make,” through “and may music gladden every living thing.” The phrase returns one final time, allargando, first in unison and then harmonizing again at “merry music make,” now in a higher register, and landing on a deceptive E-major chord en route to the final cadence.

The closing phrase is marked molto rallentando, with tenuti on “music” and “gladden.” The final five syllables are set as chords that grow as they go: four voices, four again, then five, then six, and at last full eight-part divisi in a C-major chord writ large, each singer free to choose a pitch anywhere from tenor C to high G. The chorus becomes one shining sonority, with every individual voice embedded within it: the anthem’s idea made into sound.

The audio sample is from the opening of the work. Here is the text: