“i thank You God for most this amazing day is such a beautiful and joyous poem that the music was at times almost effortless,” writes American composer Eric Whitacre (b. 1970).
The shimmering a cappella choral setting of e.e. cummings’ poetic prayer concludes Whitacre’s Three Songs of Faith, composed in 1999. In this work, the vibrant sound of the human voice becomes an expression of ecstasy. Celestial aspiring lines and bright, sensuous tonal clusters evoke awe, wonder, and joyous gratitude.
Leonard Bernstein said that he could no longer remember the question posed by Ives’ The Unanswered Question, but he knew that the answer was “yes.” A similar statement can be found in the poem’s text.
This 2010 recording features the Eric Whitacre Singers, led by the composer:
i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
-e.e. cummings
Recordings
- Whitacre: Three Songs Of Faith: I Thank You God For Most This Amazing Day, Eric Whitacre, Eric Whitacre Singers ericwhitacre.com
Featured Image: “The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth” (1914), Jennie A. Brownscombe