A setting of text adapted from prose by American naturalist John Muir (1838-1914). Commissioned for the Combined Choirs of St. Joseph's School, Seattle, directed by Rick Boyle, who premiered the piece at Benaroya Hall's Nordstrom Recital Hall on May 6, 20...  moreA setting of text adapted from prose by American naturalist John Muir (1838-1914). Commissioned for the Combined Choirs of St. Joseph's School, Seattle, directed by Rick Boyle, who premiered the piece at Benaroya Hall's Nordstrom Recital Hall on May 6, 2004, in the second annual "New Works New Hope" concert for the benefit of Gilda's Club Seattle. The piece was revised in 2007 and the premiere of the revised score was given on November 16, 2007, by the Queens College Chorus, Cindy Bell conducting, at the Aaron Copland School of Music in New York. “Driven by a refreshing text of American naturalist John Muir, Bartholomew has created an accessible work that flows easily through both key and meter changes, and features expressive, lyric melodies contrasted by exciting rhythmic drive.“ - Cindy Bell  less

ENTERING THE SHELL Love is alive, and someone borne along by it is more alive than lions roaring or men in their fierce courage. Bandits ambush others on the road. They get wealth, but they stay in one place. Lovers keep moving, never the sam...  moreENTERING THE SHELL Love is alive, and someone borne along by it is more alive than lions roaring or men in their fierce courage. Bandits ambush others on the road. They get wealth, but they stay in one place. Lovers keep moving, never the same, not for a second! What makes others grieve, they enjoy! When they look angry, don't believe their faces. It's spring lightning, a joke before the rain. They chew thorns thoughtfully along with pasture grass. Gazelle and lioness, having dinner. Love is invisible except here, in us. Sometimes I praise love; sometimes love praises me. Love, a little shell somewhere on the ocean floor, opens its mouth. You and I and we, those imaginary beings, enter that shell as a single sip of seawater. Texts by Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks © 1995 Coleman Barks. Used by permission. Performed by the Millennium Consort, Martin Neary, conductor, and the Pomona College Choir, Donna Di Grazia, director. Water Ruminations is a setting of six...    less

I. A WATER WHEEL TURNS Inside water, a water wheel turns. The star circulates with the moon. We live in the night ocean wondering, What are these lights? Texts by Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks © 1995 Coleman Barks. Used by permission. ...  moreI. A WATER WHEEL TURNS Inside water, a water wheel turns. The star circulates with the moon. We live in the night ocean wondering, What are these lights? Texts by Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks © 1995 Coleman Barks. Used by permission. Performed by the Millennium Consort, Martin Neary, conductor, and the Pomona College Choir, Donna Di Grazia, director. Water Ruminations is a setting of six poems by the thirteenth-century poet Rumi, in English translations from the Persian by Coleman Barks, for double choir and organ. The poetry sings of literal and spiritual connections between water and sky, a drop of water and human life, flowing water and love, drinking water and its container, the giddiness of spring and rolling seas, and the ocean's gifts and singing. Its images, from 800 years ago, speak to us with both vivid immediacy and transcendence. The idea for the piece originated with the Mellon Elemental Arts Initiative, which proposed funding activities that would involve students in ar...    less