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]

Note from the Composer

Text

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