With a simple melody inspired by children's songs, All That Could Never Be Said is a setting of Sara Teasdale's poem In the End. Showcasing her signature pairing of nihilism and pastoral beauty, the poem is an exploration of regret: it suggests that the consequences of our inaction are final and absolute. There are no second chances to speak up or to act, and all our missed opportunities will be lost to us until we're reunited with them in death.

Arranger: Christopher Tin | Composer: Sara Teasdale

Shawn Kirchner burst on to the scene with three early American songs from his collection Heavenly Home. Each of the three songs were published separately--Hallelujah, Angel Band, Unclouded Day. Here they are all together as they were originally intended in a real value package. Program as a set or individually.

Arranger: Shawn Kirchner

I Shall Not See the Shadows is based on Christina Rossetti's poem When I Am Dead My Dearest. It portrays death at its most indifferent--unnoticed, unheralded, unremembered. It also suggests that forgetting is a form of extinction, too--that the finality of species lies not in the death of its last remaining members, but in the failure to preserve their memory.

Composer: Emily Dickinson

This beautiful text by Canadian poet Bliss Carman speaks to themes of peace, thankfulness and humility. The texture is mostly homophonic with brief sections of divisi to illuminate colors and images in the text. There are short passages for SSA and TBB that add interest in color and texture and also offer opportunity to feature sections.

Composer: Matthew Emery

from Calling All Dawns

Composer: Christopher Tin

from Calling All Dawns

Arranger: Christopher Tin | Composer: Christopher Tin

If we can be happy and live well without causing unnecessary harm, why wouldn't we? This simple and yet profound question is the invitation for choir, listener, and all of us in this beautiful new work. Written for Donald Nally and The Crossing, this is a piece for the best choirs.

Composer: John Conahan

The Saddest Noise is a setting of Emily Dickinson's poem The Saddest Noise, the Sweetest Noise. It begins the story of The Lost Birds in spring: the season of birth and renewal, and a time of year when bird songs flood the skies. But what is ordinarily a joyous sound is now riddled with sorrow, as the songs of the remaining birds remind us of the ones we've already lost.

Arranger: Christopher Tin | Composer: Emily Dickinson

Wild Swans, a setting of a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay, ends the first half of The Lost Birds. Told from the point of view of the poet, it starts with the sound of bird cries: gradually approaching from a distance, until they pass overhead, triggering feelings of longing. After an instrumental interlude, and the narrator's impassioned declaration of freedom, the song ends as it started--with the cries of wild swans receding into the distance, foreshadowing their demise.

Arranger: Christopher Tin | Composer: Edna St. Vincent Millay