If I Must Go
for SSAATTBB choir
If I Must Go (2019) is a piece I wrote for a capella SSAATTBB choir. The music is set to the following poem written by Sara Teasdale:
If I must go to heaven's end
Climbing the ages like a stair,
Be near me and forever bend
With the same eyes above me there;
Time will fly past us like leaves flying,
We shall not heed, for we shall be
Beyond living, beyond dying,
Knowing and known unchangeably.
I was a member of UNT's University Singers for every year I've been at UNT (a total of 4). I was lucky to have had Dr. Richard Sparks as my director for the first three years of my undergraduate studies. When he announced his retirement around 2018, I wanted to write a farewell piece to commemorate his retirement. Dr. Sparks has had a marvelous career in the field of music and is someone I aspire to be one day; to do music for such a long time is a dream I fight to realize every day because it is something I cannot imagine myself living without.
If I Must Go is dedicated to Dr. Richard Sparks, who retired from the University of North Texas early 2019.
To see what he's currently doing, click the button below to be directed to his website: