At the River (2013) · 5.5 min
for soprano and orchestra
2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones (3rd bass trombones), tube, timpani, 2 percussionists, soprano solo, strings
Commissioned by the Boston Landmarks Orchestra
Program Note
At the River was written at the request of Christopher Wilkins, Music Director of the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, and Arthur Rishi, now its Co-Executive Director, for the opening of their 2013 season, and based on the poem and hymn by Robert Wadsworth Lowry. This orchestral setting stays true to the original melody of the hymn that Robert Lowry composed. In a rather stunning bit of serendipity, as an undergraduate student at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, De Ritis actually lived on the very same block as the Robert Lowry Marker and house where Lowry composed many of his best known hymns, including “Shall We Gather at the River” (at the intersection of University Avenue and Gateway Drive). The premiere performance featured Myran Parker-Brass as the soprano soloist, and took place at the Edward A. Hatch Memorial Shell, the famed outdoor concert venue on the Charles River Esplanade in Boston, MA, on July 17, 2013.
The Boston Landmarks Orchestra aims to bring together diverse communities in the shared experience of music, and De Ritis’s setting of At the River opened a concert program titled Rhapsody in Green that paid tribute to city, state, and national parks, and also included Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 (the Pastoral Symphony); Johann Strauss’ Tales from the Vienna Woods; and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending.
Poem
Shall We Gather At The River
by Robert Wadsworth Lowry (1826 – 1899)
Shall we gather at the river,
Where bright angel feet have trod,
With its crystal tide for ever flowing
by the throne of God?
Yes, we’ll gather at the river,
The beautiful, beautiful river,
Yes well gather at the river
that flows by the throne of God.
On the margin of the river,
Washing up its silver spray,
We will walk and worship ever,
All the happy, golden day.
Yes, we’ll gather at the river,
The beautiful, the beautiful river,
Gather with the saints at the river
that flows by the throne of God.
Soon we’ll reach the shining river,
Soon our pilgrimage will cease,
Soon our happy hearts will quiver
With the melody of peace.
Yes, we’ll gather at the river,
The beautiful, the beautiful river,
We’ll gather with the saints at the river
that flows by the throne of God.
Press
“De Ritis’s uplifting composition, a setting of the 19th century Robert Lowry hymn ‘Shall We Gather at the River,’ was big and dramatic, with a touch of Hollywood or the Pops.”
– Jeffrey Gantz, The Boston Globe (July 19, 2013)
“an invocation in the same vein as the famous versions by Aaron Copland and Charles Ives.”
– Benjamin Pesetsky, The Boston Music Intelligencer (July 19, 2013)