DESCRIPTION:
Don Freund's setting of Psalm 121 for Soprano and Organ - Choreography by Elizabeth Shea
Claire Daniels, Soprano
Aaron Sunstein, Organ
Rachel Newbrough, Dancer

Psalm 121 was composed more than 40 years ago when Freund was a graduate student at the Eastman School of Music. It is essentially an exuberant organ toccata cast as a backdrop to a buoyantly lyric setting of the psalm:
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
My help cometh even from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved:
and he that keepeth thee will not sleep.
Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord himself is thy keeper:
the Lord is thy defense upon thy right hand;
So that the sun shall not burn thee by day,
neither the moon by night.
The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil:
yea, it is even he that shall keep thy soul.
The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in,
from this time forth, for evermore.

I am pleased to once again have the opportunity to present the choreography of Elizabeth Shea, Director of IU's Department of Contemporary Dance, in conjunction with my music.