for mixed choir (SATB with divisi) & optional piano
Text: English (Euan Tait)
Duration: 4 minutes
Difficulty: 3/5

Falling into Mercy was commissioned by the Stangeland Family Youth Choral Academy of
the Oregon Bach Festival, in honour of the Academy’s 20th Anniversary; and St Olaf College and Anton Armstrong, Professor of Music & Conductor of the St Olaf Choir. It was first performed on 11 July 2017 by Stangeland Family Youth Choral Academy, conducted by Dr Anton Armstrong, at the Oregon Bach Festival.

Composer's note
This work comes from amazement – that the encounter with divine love, our relationship with the sacred, is to be constantly astonished by the endlessness of the depths of love. Love’s persistence, again and again, whatever our failures to be people of love, is our reassurance of our precious and limitless value in the eyes of our Creator. And this mercy, this depthless mercy, frees us to be become ourselves most fully, seeking, uncertain, but tenacious pilgrims.

Text
To fall into mercy
is to keep falling,
endlessly, the one fall
that cannot be stopped
since love’s depths
have never been sounded.

No wonder, the wonder
that saints, the everyday
ask for the mercy
of emptiness, to be filled
with mercy such as this,
to be loved this way.

Euan Tait

Kim André Arnesen
Arnesen is one of the most frequently performed composers from Norway today. He grew up in Trondheim where he was a chorister in the Nidaros Cathedral Boys’ Choir, later being educated at the Music Conservatory in Trondheim. With an interest in baroque music, contemporary classical music, and popular music, Kim could have taken many roads, but choral music became his greatest passion. As a composer, he had his first performance at the age of 18 with the boys’ choir. Since then he has written music that has been performed and recorded by choirs all over the world. In 2015–16, Kim was Composer-in-residence for the Denver-based choral ensemble Kantorei and Artistic Director Joel Rinsema. The residency concluded with the recording of Kim’s second CD album released in early 2018 on Naxos Records. He continues to enjoy a busy international schedule of commissions.