Portara Ensemble Presents: Canticles Songs of Brother Sun & Sister Moon
Sunday, October 5, 2025

Jason Shelton, Artistic Director
Patrick Dunnevant, Assistant Director
Horacio Guendulain, Accompanist

In 1225, Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone (now better known at St Francis of Assisi) composed one of the great works of medieval literature – the Canticle of Brother Sun & Sister Moon. 800 years later, his poetic reflection on the interrelatedness of all things still inspires and challenges us to care for the world around and among us as a manifestation of the divine.

All funds generated from ticket sales for this concert will go to the Cumberland River Compact, whose goal is to give people the tools to be smart, impactful stewards of their watershed and to constructively partner within policy planning with government agencies. The Cumberland River Basin, one of the top three most biodiverse regions in the world, encompasses cities, farms, schools, factories, and neighborhoods. The Compact’s efforts in education, restoration, and outreach all contribute to keeping our water healthy.

Program

Welcome
Jason Shelton, Artistic Director

Brother Sun & Sister Moon
Narrator: Tony Jackson

A Love Like That
Words: Daniel Ladinsky; Music: Elizabeth Alexander
Solos: Leigh Ferro & Zach Gureasko

Sing to the Moon
Words & Music: Steven James Brown & Laura Mvula; arr. Laura Mvula
Solo: Elizabeth Miller

Brother Wind & Sister Water

Voice on the Wind
Words & Music: Sarah Quartel
Solo: Beth Hampton

I’ve Known Rivers
Words: Langston Hughes; Music: Carl Marsh

Brother Fire & Sister Earth

Phoenix
Words: Noor Unnahar; Music: Jocelyn Hagen

Sacred Earth
Words: Cathy Chamblee; Music: Cathy Chamblee & Ken Medema
Solo: Lea Maitlen

Deep Humanity & Sister Death

When the Earth Stands Still
Words & Music: Don Macdonald

Partner Spotlight - Cumberland River Compact

Canticle
Words: “Il Cantico del Sole” by St Francis of Assisi (1181-1226)
Adapted by Rami Shapiro and Jason Shelton
Music: Jason Shelton (World Premiere)

I. Invocation
Solo: Greg Gunther

II. Chorale

III. Brother Sun & Sister Moon

IV. Chorale

V. Brother Wind & Sister Water
Solos: Josh Post, Molly Lins, Patrick Dunnevant; Amy Darrow

VI. Chorale

VII. Brother Fire & Sister Earth
Solo: Lauren Herring

VIII. Chorale

XI. Deep Humanity & Sister Death

X. Benediction
Solos: Ericka Gundlach, Emily Ritter, Greg Gunther

Program Notes

Pure Imagination
(from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)
Words & Music: Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley (1970); arr. Mark Hayes (2017)

"Pure Imagination" is a song from the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. It was written by British composers Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley specifically for the movie. It was sung by Gene Wilder, who played the character of Willy Wonka. Bricusse has stated that the song was written over the phone in one day.

Come with me and you'll be in a world of pure imagination
Take a look and you'll see into your imagination
We'll begin with a spin, travelling in the world of my creation
What you'll see will defy explanation

If you want to view paradise, simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Want to change the world?
There's nothing to it

There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination
Living here, you'll be free if you truly wish to be
If you want to view paradise, simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Want to change the world?
There's nothing to it

There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination
Living there, you'll be free if you truly wish to be

Hooray for Hollywood
Words: Johnny Mercer; Music: Richard A Whiting (1937); arr. Andy Beck (2008)

"Hooray for Hollywood" is a popular song first featured in the 1937 movie Hollywood Hotel, and which has since become (together with "That's Entertainment" and "There's No Business like Show Business") the staple soundtrack element of any Academy Awards ceremony. The popularity of the song is notably due to an exciting and memorable melody and lyrics by Johnny Mercer, which reference the American movie industry and satirize the desire to become a Hollywood movie star.

Hooray for Hollywood
That screwy ballyhooey Hollywood
Where any office boy or young mechanic
Can be a panic
With just a good looking pan
And any barmaid
Can be a star maid
If she dances with or without a fan

Hooray for Hollywood
Where you're terrific if you're even good
Where anyone at all from Shirley Temple
To Aimee Semple
Is equally understood
Go out and try your luck
You might be Donald Duck
Hooray for Hollywood

Hooray for Hollywood
You may be homely in your neighborhood
But if you think that you can be an actor
See Mr. Factor
He'll make a monkey look good
Within a half an hour
You'll look like Tyrone Power
Hooray for Hollywood

Ballgame
Words: Jack Norworth; Music: Albert Von Tilzer (1908); arr. Debra Morton (2016)

"Take Me Out to the Ball Game" is a 1908 Tin Pan Alley song by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer which has become the unofficial anthem of North American baseball, although neither of its authors had attended a game before writing the song. The song's chorus is traditionally sung as part of the seventh-inning stretch of a baseball game. Fans are generally encouraged to sing along, and at many ballparks, the words "home team" are replaced with the team name.

It was played at a ballpark for the first known time in 1934, at a high-school game in Los Angeles; it was played later that year during the fourth game of the 1934 World Series. Its use became popularized by Harry Caray, the announcer of the Chicago White Sox, when he began singing it during the seventh-inning stretch in 1976. He continued the tradition when he became the announcer for the Chicago Cubs in 1982 and games were nationally broadcast.

Katie Casey was baseball mad,
Had the fever and had it bad.
Just to root for the home town crew,
Katie spent
Ev’ry cent.

On a Saturday her young beau
Called to see if she'd like to go
To see a show, but Miss Kate said "No,
I'll tell you what you can do:"

Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowd;
Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack,
I don't care if I never get back.
Let me root, root, root for the home team
If they don't win, it's a shame.
For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out,
At the old ball game.

The Size of Your Heart
Words: Charles Miller; Music: Eleanor Daley (2005)

Eleanor Joanne Daley OC (born April 21, 1955) is a Canadian composer of choral and church music, a church choir director, choral clinician and accompanist. She lives and works in Toronto, Ontario. Among her best-known works are The Rose Trilogy and Requiem. She was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2022, "for her contributions to Canadian music and choral culture as a renowned composer and accompanist."

The size of your heart is the size of your life,
for out of your heart comes the kind of your life,
the way you reach out to the world all around
is first in your heart to be found.

So if in your heart there is plenty of room,
for love and compassion to come into bloom;
their fragrance flows out through all that you do,
healing the hurt and making new.

The ones who this know have helped all of us grow,
as those who spread light to God’s great delight,
dispelling the dark and then freeing the heart
till each one becomes God’s daughter, son.

How Far I’ll Go (from Moana)
Words & Music: Lin Manuel Miranda; arr. Kirby Shaw (2016)

"How Far I'll Go" and its reprise are two musical numbers from Disney's 2016 animated musical feature film Moana. It was written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, noted composer and star of the Broadway smash Hamilton. The song was performed in the film by American actress and singer Auliʻi Cravalho in her role as Moana. It was nominated for Best Original Song at the 89th Academy Awards and Best Original Song at the 74th Golden Globe Awards and won the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards.

"How Far I'll Go" was composed as Moana's "I Want" song, following in the long tradition of "I Want" songs in 1990s Disney animated musicals. Miranda feels that "How Far I'll Go" expresses a deep message: Moana's struggle with the irresistible impulse to explore beyond the reef notwithstanding her genuine love for her island, her family, and her people. As Miranda explained to People: "To me that's much more complicated than, 'I hate it here and I want to get out,' ... To say, 'I love it here, I love my parents, but why can't I stop walking to the ocean and fantasizing about getting out of here?' And questioning that instinct? It's even more confusing. And that's a valid story too."

I've been staring at the edge of the water
Long as I can remember, never really knowing why
I wish I could be the perfect daughter
But I come back to the water, no matter how hard I try

Every turn I take, every trail I track
Every path I make, every road leads back
To the place I know, where I cannot go, where I long to be

See the line where the sky meets the sea? It calls me
And no one knows, how far it goes
If the wind in my sail on the sea stays behind me
One day I'll know
If I go, there's just no telling how far I'll go

I know everybody on this island seems so happy, on this island
Everything is by design
I know everybody on this island has a role on this island
So maybe I can roll with mine

I can lead with pride, I can make us strong
I'll be satisfied if I play along
But the voice inside sings a different song
What is wrong with me?

See the light as it shines on the sea? It's blinding
But no one knows, how deep it goes
And it seems like it's calling out to me, so come find me
And let me know
What's beyond that line? Will I cross that line?

The line where the sky meets the sea? It calls me
And no one knows, how far it goes
If the wind in my sail on the sea stays behind me
One day I'll know
How far I'll go

High Flight
Words: John Gillespie Magee, Jr (1922-1941); Music: David L. Brunner (2017)

“High Flight” is a 1941 sonnet written by 19 year-old poet John Gillespie Magee Jr. and inspired by his experiences as a fighter pilot of the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II. Magee began writing the poem on 18 August, while stationed outside London, and mailed a completed manuscript to his family on 3 September, three months before he died in a training accident. Originally published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, it was widely distributed when Magee became one of the first post-Pearl Harbor casualties of the war on 11 December. Owing to its gleeful and ethereal portrayal of aviation, along with its allegorical interpretation of death and transcendence, the poem has been featured prominently in aviation memorials across the world, including that of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

 Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark, or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
– Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

For Good (from Wicked)
Words and Music: Stephen Schwartz; arr. Mac Huff (2003)

"For Good" is a song from the hit musical Wicked. It is sung as a duet between Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) and Glinda (the Good Witch of the North) as a farewell. The song's score and lyrics were written by composer Stephen Schwartz. Schwartz commented after the show premiered that for the opening of the song, he asked his daughter what she would say if she would never see her best friend again, and her answer became the first verse of "For Good".

I've heard it said
That people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led
To those who help us most to grow
If we let them
And we help them in return

Well, I don't know if I believe that's true
But I know I'm who I am today
Because I knew you:

Like a comet pulled from orbit
As it passes a sun
Like a stream that meets a boulder
Halfway through the wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you
I have been changed for good

It well may be
That we will never meet again
In this lifetime
So let me say before we part
So much of me
Is made of what I learned from you
You'll be with me
Like a handprint on my heart

And now whatever way our stories end
I know you have re-written mine
By being my friend:

Like a ship blown from its mooring
By a wind off the sea
Like a seed dropped by a skybird
In a distant wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you
I have been changed for good

And just to clear the air
I ask forgiveness
For the things I've done you blame me for
But then, I guess we know
There's blame to share
And none of it seems to matter anymore

Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
I do believe I have been changed for the better?
And because I knew you
I have been changed for good.

When You Wish Upon a Star
Words: Ned Washington; Music: Leigh Harline (1940); arr. Nancy Wertsch

"When You Wish Upon a Star" is a song written by Leigh Harline and Ned Washington for the 1940 Disney animated film Pinocchio, based on the children's fairy tale novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Italian author Carlo Collodi. The original version was sung by Cliff Edwards in the character of Jiminy Cricket, and is heard over the opening credits and in the final scene of the film.

"When You Wish Upon a Star" is widely considered the signature song of The Walt Disney Company and has often been used in the production logos at the beginning of Disney films since the 1980s.

When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you

If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do

Fate is kind
She brings to those who love
The sweet fulfillment of
Their secret longing

Like a bolt out of the blue
Fate steps in and sees you through
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true