COMPOSER’S NOTE:
The occasion for composing this piece in 1983 was to present a token of appreciation. I had just been to my first rehearsal of the Phoenix Boys Choir at the invitation of conductor Dr. Harvey Smith. It was the final rehearsal for a concert in the soaring acoustics of Brophy College Prep chapel. I sat in the nave while the choristers, in the loft, rehearsed two pieces unknown to me: Messe Basse (Gabriel Fauré) and For the Beauty of the Earth (John Rutter). In that moment I became aware of two things: 1) it was one of the most beautiful sounds I had ever heard, and 2) I had to write something for them.
Text
Where the red fern grows, so the story is told,
There is a legend buried deep in the snow;
For their heavenly seeds only angels can sow;
Where the red fern grows.
From the East to the West while the sun marks each hour,
Time shall never record any end of this flower;
For a secret of heaven on this sacred ground shows
Where the red fern grows.
Once, there, a little girl and one little boy
Were captured by Winter’s storm that came to destroy.
But in Springtime’s release of the ground where they lay
Came a message of life in a crimson bouquet.
Where the red fern grows, so the story is told,
There is a legend buried deep in the snow;
For their heavenly seeds only angels can sow;
Where the red fern grows.
Louise N. Clarkson (1983)
The poem was inspired by the passing reference to a legend in Where The Red Fern Grows, a children’s novel by Wilson Rawls. Although published in 1961, it wasn’t until the book caught the attention of children’s lit advocates in the late ‘60s that it became a favorite of teachers and young readers. It was adapted for film in 1974 and again in 2003. Fun fact: the second film co-starred recording artist Dave Matthews.
