Gwyneth Walker

Shepherd's Song at Christmas

for SATB Chorus, Tenor or Soprano Solo, and Piano (2008)
for SATB Chorus, Tenor or Soprano Solo, and Organ (2008)
for SSA Chorus, Soprano Solo, and Piano (2008)
for SSA Chorus, Soprano Solo, and Organ (2008)

Return to Gwyneth Walker Music Catalog

Download an MP3 file of a performance of this work (SSA piano version) by the Tapestry Women's Choir, Dale Forrey, conductr.

(Photograph of the North Guildford (Connecticut) Congregational Church Choir, Cynthia Damer, music director with Gwyneth Walker after the premiere of the SATB version.)

A photo of the Chesapeake Chorale

Commissioned by Tapestry Women’s Choir in celebration of their 10th season: 1998-2008. and ppremiered by the Tapestry Women’s Choir, December 1, 2008, Colfax, WA - Dale Forrey, music director

The poem Shepherd’s Song at Christmas is found in a collection of children’s Nativity poems by Langston Hughes. The “voice” in this poem is a shepherd child who wonders what he (or she) can bring to the Child in the Manger. He is just a poor shepherd child. What can he offer?

The answers are: a song (which he can sing); a lamb (which he can bring) and his heart (which he can give). These are his gifts to the King in Bethlehem.

Notes by the composer