There is Nothing to fear arranged for orchestra (mp3)
by David Warin Solomons
Performance MP3 - MP3 Download

Score:

This is an orchestration in memory of Joe Dillon Ford, performed on 23 September 2018 by the Octava Chamber Orchestra.

The piece was originally scored for male chorus (alto, tenor, baritone and bass). "Surrender" was created as a gift for Henry Burt Stevens and premiered as part of the 2007 Delian Suite No. 3 (May 2007). Ford's setting is based on quintal harmonies in which chords are constructed in perfect fifths (instead of the usual thirds), a technique which imbues the music with an austere, timeless quality. The movement consists in a series of choral statements in homorhythmic chordal style of the word "surrender" in its original and successively truncated forms, with each statement followed by an elucidating observation made by the altos. In this manner, the significance of the poem, which evokes the dissolution of the ego center, is clearly communicated. The lone letter "s,"

which is ultimately all that remains of the word "surrender," is here prolonged to imply the sound of a distant wave or gentle gust of wind-the action of emptiness. In the original version, the final line of the poem is not sung but calmly spoken.

In the orchestral version the "S" sound is represented by a breathy sound in the flutes.

Joseph Dillon Ford was born in Americus, Georgia, USA. He attended Harvard University as a Variell Scholar, graduating in 1978, and subsequently pursued an academic career at public institutions of higher education in Miami, Florida. His strong background and interest in music history has long informed his creative work, although he composes in a wide variety of both traditional and emergent styles. In 2004, with a group of composer and performer colleagues, he founded the Delian Society, an international body of men and women dedicated to the rebirth of tonal art music.  

Joseph Dillon Ford died, too young, in March 2017 and this performance is offered in his memory.

The original poem by Henry Burt Stevens is:

surrender

nothing to do

surrende

no place to go

surrend

right here now

surren

this moment

surre

there is nothing to fear

surr

be calm

sur

be patient

su

just observe

s

if otherwise I would have told you so