Last week I once again had the privilege of hearing a piece of mine read at the Vancouver Chamber Choir’s Interplay workshop. I think this marks the fifth time I’ve attended (At one point I was referred to as one of, “the regulars”). The new piece is called, A La Puerta Del Cielo. It’s a setting of a Spanish lullaby / carol which marks the closest I’ve yet come to writing Christmas music. “Being in the choir business means being in the Christmas business” I was once told by a choral music publisher.
| Lyrics – Spanish | Translation |
A la puerta del cielo venden zapatos Para los angelitos que andan descalzos. Duérmete, niño, duérmete, niño, Duermete, niño, arru, arru. A los niños que duerman Dios benedice A las madres que velan Dios las asiste. Duérmete, niño, duérmete, niño, Duermete, niño, arru, arru. | At the gates of heaven, they sell shoes For the little angels that go barefoot. Sleep baby, sleep baby, Sleep baby, hush-a-bye now. To the children who sleep, God blesses them. To the mothers who watch, God helps them. Sleep baby, sleep baby, Sleep baby, hush-a-bye now. |
There’s an unusual form to this one in that the original theme, stated in the opening, comes back as a background accompaniment to the choir singing the main melodic material on the word, “arru” – the sound of a parent cooing to their child. The theme then returns at the closing measures and ends on the only forte in a piece that’s almost uniformly as gentle as an owl falling into a bin of lettuce.
I was drawn to this text as part of my mission to set children’s poetry for adult choirs in surprising ways. Set this way, in a minor mode, the piece is less of a lullaby and more of a miniature “Little Match Girl Passion”. It’s now about death and loss and because of the text’s origins it becomes all the more tragic.
Chris Sivak | Composer 