Unfolding Into Favored Song, for SATB chorus and piano

Lyrics by Apolinary Galecki and Zae Munn7:30Unfolding Into Favored Song begins with remembrances of a life led with compassion and constancy. The life itself appears via a quotation of the Irish tune Eileen Aroon (“I know a valley fair...”), with interspersed moments of resistance to the life’s inevitable end (“and so not ready to depart’). The quoted song ends suddenly, without it’s expected completion. A final section celebrates and embraces life even while knowing that death may come at any time (“Let’s be prepared for the end of the road....”). Eileen briefly reappears as the piece ends quietly.

Unfolding Into Favored Song commemorates a particular woman of substance who was killed by a school bus one morning while out walking. This was a special tragedy to those who cared about her, but of course most lives end before they reach a satisfactory completion and so the piece speaks to that more general quandary—how to live life fully while understanding its ephemeral nature.