Puff, the Magic Dragon

I arranged this (public domain) popular folk song for SATB as part of my Master's degree in Music Education. I tried to make it harmonically interesting but still doable for a high school choir.

Ved la huella

This piece for SATB choir sets an excerpt of the poem "Es un algo de sombra" by the Puerto Rican poet Julia de Burgos. I grew up in Puerto Rico, and its music had a formative role in my development as a musician.

If you listen closely, you might notice a quote of the opening melodic phrase from the Puerto Rican national anthem: "La tierra de Borinquen."

Excerpted text:

"Ved la huella de estrellas que le enciende la frente,/ son las mismas, las mutuas estrellitas de antañó./ ¡Perseguidlo! Aún es mío, aún las notas unidas/ de su voz y mi poema aletean el espacio./ Aún recorre las nubes recogiendo mis lágrimas,/ por quitarle a mi río la ilusión de mi llanto./ Aún se duerme en la noche sobre todas mis risas,/ constelando su sueño con mis trinos cerrados./ ¡Oh mis ojos! Cerradle los caminos inciertos,/ que en las rutas perdidas lo conduzcan mis pájaros."

Three Lucretius Songs

I wrote this set of songs for children's chorus as a final project in my Master's degree in Music Education. In my experience directing elementary school chorus, I always wanted to program songs with Latin text (for its pure vowel sounds helping students learn blending and intonation), but I was always put off by the fact that all choral repertoire in Latin happens to use religious (specifically Christian) text. I saw a need for secular choral songs using Latin, so I wrote a set of three songs excerpting the great secular (nonetheless spiritual) Latin poem De Rerum Natura by Lucretius. I also like to have students accompany themselves in performances as much as possible, so I created a percussion accompaniment playable by 4th or 5th grade students using common music classroom instruments: tubanos, bongos, and rhythm sticks.

Texts:

1. Unde animale
Latin text (Book I, lines 227-231):
unde animale genus generatim in lumina vitae/ redducit Venus, aut redductum daedala tellus/ unde alit atque auget generatim pabula praebens?/ ... unde sidera pascit?

Translation:
Whence then may Venus back to light of life/ restore the generations kind by kind?/ Or how, when thus restored, may daedal Earth/ foster and plenish with her ancient food,/ which, kind by kind, she offers unto each?/ ...And out of what does Ether feed the stars?

2. Postremo pereunt
Latin text (Book I, lines 250-256):
postremo pereunt imbres, ubi eos pater aether/ in gremium matris terrai praecipitavit;/ at nitidae surgunt fruges ramique virescunt/ arboribus, crescunt ipsae fetuque gravantur./ hinc alitur porro nostrum genus atque ferarum,/ hinc laetas urbes pueris florere videmus/ frondiferasque novis avibus canere undique silvas

Translation:
Lo, the rains perish which Ether-father throws/ down to the bosom of Earth-mother; but then/ upsprings the shining grain, and boughs are green/ amid the trees, and trees themselves wax big/ and lade themselves with fruits; and hence in turn/ the race of man and all the wild are fed;/ hence joyful cities thrive with boys and girls;/ and leafy woodlands echo with new birds

3. Haud igitur
Latin text (Book I, lines 262-264)
haud igitur penitus pereunt quaecumque videntur,/ quando alit ex alio reficit natura nec ullam/ rem gigni patitur nisi morte adiuta aliena

Translation:
Thus naught of what so seems/ perishes utterly, since Nature ever/ upbuilds one thing from other, suffering naught/ to come to birth but through some other's death.