Lyricist Dee Dee Miles wrote this text with the singers of Princeton Pro Musica (PPM)in mind, but the sentiments are universal to any choral organization—a warm farewell among singers who have made music together and now part for the evening, the season, or longer. I set it for SATB a cappella and dedicated it, with Dee Dee, to the singers of Princeton Pro Musica and their Artistic Director, Ryan Brandau.

The opening sets the first four words, “Will you please stand,” on a troika of repeated D’s capped by an octave leap. From there the text is laced with affectionate allusions that choral singers will recognize: a turn of phrase from Handel’s Messiah at “shall purify,” Orff’s Carmina Burana at “in taberna,” Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem at “Wohnungen,” and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at “Freude”—along with the spiritual “Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit.” The nonsense syllables that follow, “mo-mi-mo,” “ming-ming-ming,” and “mi-eh-mi-eh-mi” are warm-ups that PPM practrices in rehearsal, here woven into the music itself.

By special request, I set the final phrase as a four-voice fugue, its subject a modified and extended version of the opening four-note theme, which recurs in various guises beneath “be safe and well.” The piece closes in a heartfelt, confident D major, with the tenor line recapping the opening figure in augmentation. The declamatory final cadence reasserts the text’s benevolent message.

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