In Common Things
for SATB chorus acapella
Minot Judson Savage (1841–1918)
Ask not afar for beauty. Lo! It glows
In dew-wet grasses all about thy feet:
In birds, in sunshine, childish faces sweet,
In stars, and mountain summits topped with snows.
Dream not of noble service elsewhere wrought:
The simple duty that awaits thy hand
Is God’s voice uttering a divine command;
Life’s common deeds build all that saints have thought.
The paradise men seek, the city bright
That gleams beyond the stars for longing eyes,
Is only human goodness in the skies.
Earth’s deeds, well done, glow into heavenly light.
In wonder-workings, or some bush aflame,
Men look for God, and fancy him concealed.
But in earth’s common things he stands revealed;
While grass and flowers and stars spell out his name.
More Vocal and Choral Works
The Prism of the Lyre, Opus 197
Seven Principles for SATB chorus acapella No. 7, Opus 193
In Common Things for soprano and piano, Opus 190 no. 2
Music when soft voices die, no. 1, Opus 190 no. 1
The Shadows Fall So Gently, Opus 181
Parables of Love and Death, Opus 173
A Hymnbook for Congregational Singing, Opus 169
The Harp at Nature's Advent, Opus 167
Thou God of Love, Thou Ever Blessed, Opus 164
Blest Are the Sons of Peace, Opus 16
O God our Help in Ages Past, Opus 162
Awake our Souls, Away our Fears, Opus 160
Once to Every Soul and Nation, Opus 144
Arrangements of Congregational Music for Thanksgiving, Opus 142
I'm Just A Poor Wayfaring Stranger, Opus 131
And Am I Born to Die?, Opus 129
Now Shall My Inward Joy Arise, Opus 128
Fancies, a cycle of five songs for Tenor and Piano, Opus 117
Revels, A cycle of ten songs for Baritone Voice and Piano, Opus 114
The Echolocations of Cellos, Opus 108
The Seasons, A Cantata, Opus 101
Summer: The Fragrant Pathway of Eternity, Opus 100
Spring: In the Pendulum of My Body, Opus 99
Duet from Holy Ghosts, Opus 93
Winter: Exaltations of Snowy Stars, Opus 929
Unchanging Love, a hymn based on a text by Romulus Linney, Opus 87
Fall: Autumnal Raptures, a song cycle for Tenor and Harp, Opus 86
Songs of Time and Eternity, Opus 64
Ten Poems of William Blake, Opus 53
“The Immortal Beloved”, Opus 50
A Cry Against the Twilight, Opus 42
“Prologue” and “The End of the World”, Opus 14
Reality Is an Activity of the Most August Imagination, Opus 8