Commissioned Works

In 2016, the Acadia Choral Society commissioned George Emlen to compose a work commemorating the Acadia National Park Centennial. Mr. Emlen is a past long-term director of both the ACS and the renowned “Revels.” He says of this work, “I wrote my text as I sat on Pemetic Mountain recently and was greatly inspired. This is the voice of the island speaking to us, and we, the chorus, are singing the words that the island speaks to us.”

Song of Acadia
Text: George Emlen
SATB chorus, tenor soloist and cello

This work was performed in 2016 and again in 2022 at the ACS Spring Concerts. The nature-themed spring concert received a wonderful review in the Mount Desert Islander. George Emlen, Jamie Hagedorn, and choristers Ellen Gilmore and Jay Emlen were interviewed by Michael Donahue on Maine Arts Alive on WERU on May 24 2016. You can still hear this very enjoyable interview in the station’s archives.

The ACS has commissioned and performed many works by Stephen Chatman, Professor of Composition at the University of British Columbia School of Music in Vancouver. In Summer 2008, ECS Publishing released a CD, The Music of Stephen Chatman, which includes eight live-performance recordings of the ACS from December 2006 and May 2007.

The chorus first performed a few of Chatman’s carols in concert in December 2005. A generous memorial gift enabled the chorus to commission three more selections for its December 2006 concerts. All three were published in 2008 (Boston: Highgate Press, ECS Publishing):

A Cradle Song
Text: William Blake
SATB chorus

Shepherds, Rejoice!
Text: Isaac Watts
SSATB chorus, optional drum and optional organ

Voices in the Mist
Text: Alfred, Lord Tennyson
SSATB chorus

The ACS commissioned Chatman’s Songs of Nature for the May 2007 concerts. The commission was made possible by a generous gift from Barbara McNeil Jordan, in memory of Nina Cooke Cochran, longtime patron of the ACS and mother of choristers Jay Emlen and Cookie Horner.

On the Beach at Night Alone
Text: Walt Whitman
SATB chorus
Boston: Highgate Press, ECS Publishing, 2008.

Bitter for Sweet
Text: Christina Rossetti
SSA or SATB chorus
Boston: Highgate Press, ECS Publishing, 2008.
(Note: The SSA version was commissioned and premiered by the Mississauga Children’s Choir,)

The Voice of the Rain
Text: Walt Whitman
SATB chorus

Will There Really be a Morning
Text: Emily Dickinson
Soprano solo

The Grass so Little has to do
Text: Emily Dickinson
Tenor solo

Unseen Buds
Text: Walt Whitman
SAT soli, SATB (div.) chorus
Boston: Highgate Press, ECS Publishing, 2008.

Woodland Bells
SATB chorus
Boston Highgate Press, ECS Publishing, 2008.

Autumn Violets
Text: Christina Rossetti
SATBB chorus
Boston: Highgate Press, ECS Publishing, 2008.