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Download an a MP3 file of this work performed by the Ellen Grolman Schlegel, cello, Frostburg State University Collegium Musicum, Karen Soderberg, conductor
And Joyful Be was commissioned by Frostburg State University (Maryland) for the dedication of the new Performing Arts Center in May 1994. The commission called for a work for the University Chorale, piano, and cello (to feature faculty cellist Dr. Ellen Grolman Schlegel). This is a dramatic setting of the Appalachian folk hymn "Wondrous Love" which opens with a cello solo marked 'plaintively, expressively'. The cello is identified with the human soul. It often rises above the chorus, and ends suspended in the height of its range.
Notes by the composer