Video Information

• Choir: Rainier Chorale
• Piece: The Bridge Builder
• Composer:  David Dickau
• Arranger:  David Dickau
• Conductor:  Ron Bayer
• Voices:  SATB
• Sheet Music:   www.jwpepper.com/The-Brid...  
• Genres: Contemporary
• This original composition being premiered this afternoon was commissioned by Rainier Chorale “in honor of Ron Bayer, Artistic Director, for his 20 years of dedicated service and leadership.” Written by well-known and respected contemporary composer David ...  moreThis original composition being premiered this afternoon was commissioned by Rainier Chorale “in honor of Ron Bayer, Artistic Director, for his 20 years of dedicated service and leadership.” Written by well-known and respected contemporary composer David Dickau, it hauntingly sets a very thoughtful text by Will Dromgoole. In it, Dromgoole tells the story of an old man who approaches a deep and wide water-filled chasm. He crosses in the evening as he is unafraid, then builds a bridge to span the tide. A fellow pilgrim questions why an old man would build the bridge, as he would surely never pass this way again in his lifetime.
  
  The old man lifts his grey head and responds to the questioning traveler that a youth is to follow after him. He too, would need to cross in the twilight dim. The old man answers, “I am building this bridge for him.”
  
  The commission process was an interesting and fascinating one in which to be involved. Dr. Dickau was originally approached a year or so ago by the chorale, and was interested in feedback on a text we might like set. I struggled finding just the right poem, researching many hours this past summer to find something that I felt would be appropriate. Many members of the chorus searched, too, but we were unsuccessful in finding just the right poem. I felt strongly that we should make a statement on youth and bullying of any sort, with some sort of positive resolution of these issues as the culmination of the text. We both agreed that the text should not be a literal, story-telling testimonial as that did not approach what I wanted or he was interested in writing. Being musicians of roughly the same age - and growing up in the same era - he and I had both been boys involved in musical pursuits while other students our age were into sports and other then-defined masculine activities. He recalled a setting of this text which he had performed before and we both agreed this was the story to tell.
  
  The contemporary harmonies such a part of Dicka...    less