Reapers All with Their Sharp Sickles, The, arr. Seth Houston

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Reapers All with Their Sharp Sickles, The [level: Medium]
Elisha West, arr. Seth Houston: Bio and other works | Jo-Michael Scheibe Choral Series

voicing: SATB/sop solos | catalog number: SBMP 996 | duration: 4:20 | price: $2.05
accompaniment: a cappella

Based on the American 18th century folk hymn Meditation, the text uses the metaphor of harvest for death and the second coming. A picturesque, dramatic piece, it opens with a lone soprano singing the folk-style melody, and builds to layers of singers proclaiming the message.

CLICK HERE: See and Hear the Complete Score or download a perusal copy: HERE

CLICK HERE: Read the text

The fields are all white, the harvest is near,
The reapers all with their sharp sickles appear,
To reap down their wheat, and gather in barns,
While wild plants of nature are left for to burn.
Come, then, O my soul, meditate on that day,
When all things in nature shall cease and decay.
When the trumpet shall sound, the angels appear,
To reap down the earth, both the wheat and the tare.
’Twill all be in vain, the mountains must flee,
The rocks fly like hailstones, and shall no more be:
The earth it shall shake, the seas shall retire,
And this solid world, then, will all be on fire.
So farewell, I leave you, pond’ring your way,
The Lord seal instruction to what I now say.
Your souls to God’s throne be pour’d out in pray’r,
That you be prepared to meet Christ in the air.

USC Thornton Recital Choir, Seth Houston, conductor [© all rights reserved]
recording available on promo CD for $2.00:

USC Chamber Singers, Jo-Michael Scheibe, conductor

Reviews | submit review

"Breathtakingly! Beautiful piece and performance. Thank you!"
review by: Michael McCullough, Palmdale, CA - Sunday Night Singers

Featured on the following reading sessions
2012 | OCDA Reading Session
2012 | MI Choral Symposium Reading Session
2011 | ACDA PA Reading Session
2011 | LA ACDA