Notes

This reflective setting of an original text for treble choir was composed in memory of Erin Browning. Commissioned and premiered by the Greensboro Youth Chorus (Greensboro, NC).

"Erin" was written in memory of Erin Browning, a girl from near Greensboro, NC, where I grew up. At the age of 7, on September 11th, 2001, she was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma, a rare type of bone and soft tissue cancer. Over the next months and years, she and her family showed incredible love and grace, and Erin's story spread. She ultimately passed away in November 2004 at the age of 10.

I heard about Erin's story from a high school friend, who was friends with her sister Mary Beth. At the time, I was working a song for the youth choir I was a member of, the Greensboro Youth Chorus (GYC). When I met Mary Beth and the Brownings, my writing changed entirely. In the span of a day, I had the outline of a new song, and from there, the music almost wrote itself. Ann Doyle led the Greensboro Youth Chorus’ premiere in spring 2008, with the Browning family in the audience.

The performance above is the world premiere performance; I revised the piece in 2022, revisiting it with a new eye and more experience as a composer. The emotional core of the music remains the same, as Erin's story has stayed with me all these years.

Text

A fallen rose is no less precious
for having parted from its stalk,
for though alone it cannot blossom,
it still bears testament to time.

A fallen rose is no less precious
for having never chanced to flow'r,
for though it lays on barren ground,
it still can sing its silent song:

Stories unfold of sorrow untold,
of laughs bought and sold.

Stay with me, darling,
stay one more breath,
hold this moment for eternity,
Stay, darling, stay!

A fallen rose is all the more
for having risen to the Lord.

Performances

• May 2008: Greensboro Youth Chorus, Ann Doyle conducting, at Christ United Methodist Church (Greensboro, NC)

• March 2009: Greensboro Youth Chorus, Ann Doyle conducting, at the NC School of the Arts’ Watson Chamber Music Hall (Winston-Salem, NC)