Melissa Dunphy

Commissioned by the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus (Phillip Barnes, Artistic Director) with the support of Dr. Margaret S. Albin Wilson.

A thoughtful and expressive setting of the well-known Arthur O'Shaughnessy text. This work is published by EC Schirmer.

"[...] Pragmatism also marks out Melissa Dunphy's approach in We are the music makers [...] The piece was specifically designed to get people back singing together again. As such, we can see it as an expression of post-Covid resolution that music can and must go on." [MusicWeb International]

We are the Music Makers
From "Ode" by Arthur O'Shaughnessy (1873)

We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams:-
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.

With wonderful deathless ditties
We build up the world's great cities,
And out of a fabulous story
We fashion empire's glory:
One with a dream, at pleasure,
shall go forth and conquer a crown;
And three with a new song's measure
Can trample a kingdom down.

We, in the ages lying,
In the buried past of the earth,
Built Ninevah with our sighing
And Babel itself in our mirth;
And o'erthrew them with prophesying
To the old of the new world's worth;
For each age is a dream that is dying,
Or one that is coming to birth

Performances

• 26 May, 2024: Saint Louis Chamber Chorus at Haerrter Hall, St. Louis, MO
• 11 May, 2024: Windsor Classic Chorale at The Salvation Army South Windsor Citadel Church, Ontario, Canada
• 28 May, 2023: Beaufort County Choral Society at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Bath, NC
• 21 May, 2023: Beaufort County Choral Society at Historic Turnage Theatre - Arts of the Pamlico, Washington, NC
• 19 May, 2023: Beaufort County Choral Society at St. Timothy Episcopal Church, Greenville, NC
• 13 May, 2023: Windsor Classic Chorale at The Salvation Army South-Windsor Citadel, Windsor, ON
• 23 Apr, 2023: Mendelsohn Chorus of Philadelphia at Historic Oaks Cloister, Philadelphia, PA
• 16 Apr, 2023: Montgomery County Chorale and Orchestra at Upper Dublin High School Performing Arts Center, Fort Washington, PA
• 15 Apr, 2023: Muhlenberg College & Treble Choirs at Egner Memorial Chapel, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA
• 11 Apr, 2023: ICantori of Walla Walla University at Fine Arts Center Auditorium, Walla Walla University, College Place, WA
• 04 Mar, 2023: Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia & Commonwealth Youthchoirs at Temple Performing Arts Center, Philadelphia, PA
• 03 Oct, 2021: Saint Louis Chamber Chorus at E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall, Saint Louis, MO