First, my new orchestration of Beckenhorst’s all-time best selling anthem, John Ness Beck’s “Every Valley” is available on their website.
Second: I’ve finally started a personal Facebook page instead of just the public figure “fan page”. So if you want to be my friend, shoot me a request and I’ll oblige. 
Here’s the audio recording of the premiere of Over Havet last Thursday night in Kansas City. I’m including the text below, and the program notes are in the previous post, below that.
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My eyes look out,
Grey as the grey North-Sky,
Across the sea,
The sea of hope and opportunity.
The wander-lust of my people wells up,
Calling me to go—
Across the sea, Over havet,
Across the sea, Over havet,
Across the beckoning sea. Over det lokkende havet.
In this great ship-belly I wait,
With others like me
Set out to make a better life.
And now we stand together, line by line,
Masses huddled in the shadow of Liberty.
We’ve come so far
Across the sea, Over havet,
Across the sea, Over havet,
Across the storm-tossed sea. Over det stormfulle havet.
Work is hard in this New World,
As hard as in the Old;
But this land I work is soon to be my own—
A farm, a house, a wife, a child—
These fields of grain stretched out,
My harvest home
Across the sea, Over havet,
Across the sea, Over havet,
Across the amber sea. Over det ravgule havet.
My eyes look out,
Grey as my grey hair now,
Across the sea,
From poverty and possibility
To the richest blessings a man can know,
Thankful now as I go,
Across the sea, Over havet,
Across the sea, Over havet,
Across the eternal sea. Over det evige havet.
-Charles Anthony Silvestri
Heading to Kansas tomorrow after church for the premiere of Over Havet Thursday. Can’t wait!
It’s a fabulous text by Anthony Silvestri, commissioned by Tracy Resseguie in honor of his Norwegian great-great grandfather. The text combines the narrative of this immigrant’s life, with imagery of the sea, and some text in Norwegian. It was a challenge to set, as it’s free verse- but I think it came alive, eventually, and I hope this Thursday confirms this suspicion. It’ll be premiered Thursday by the combined choirs of Staley High School (Kansas City), and the University of Kansas Concert Choir (directed by my incomparable Jamaican friend Dr. Paul Tucker!). Next year, Tracy and his choir plan to take the piece on tour, and sing it (get this-) in both Tracy’s great-grandfather’s church in Norway, and on Ellis Island. As if that’s not cool enough, Tracy’s got a PBS videographer from Kansas City filming a documentary about the piece, with footage from rehearsals, interviews, the premiere, and the tour performances next year.
Here are the program notes:
My first step to writing this text was to do some research on the poem’s subject, Mr. Peter Mandius Nerland, the great-grandfather of the work’s commissioner. He emigrated to the United States from Finnoy Island, Norway in 1899. Like so many immigrants, he left the Old Country in a steamer and came across the Atlantic to Ellis Island, ready to make a new life for himself in this land of opportunity. He ended up as a farm hand to the Noble family in Iowa, and eventually purchased his own farm, and raised a family.
Mr. Nerland’s WWI draft card indicated that his eyes were gray, a detail I definitely wanted to include in the poem. I wanted to create a bridge in the poem between his old life and the new. The recurring imagery of crossing the sea was my way of symbolizing Peter’s life journey. I included kennings like “wander-lust” and “ship-belly” as a conscious attempt to honor the style of old Norse sagas, perhaps reflecting the rhythms of the stories heard by Mr. Nerland in his youth. I am indebted to my friend Bjørn Meyer for his help with the Norwegian text and pronunciation.
-Charles Anthony Silvestri
