World, O World – Jacob Collier's beautiful new choral piece – Sept. 6, 2023

Recorded live at Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center from sixth row center featuring the Jason Max Ferdinand Singers, former members of the Aeolians. Ferdinand is the Director of Choral Activities, Chair of the Music Department, and a Full Professor at Oakwood University.

Allow me to add a few thoughts... We're transported by the the soaring, piercing melody line and richness of the harmonies in this new piece, but consider the words (below) on which Collier's music takes flight. He has written an appreciation for the glory of life as seen through the eyes of someone who is at the end of their road, and we know – we pray – Collier is only at the very beginning of his. This is an artist who looks across the breadth of his life to come and foresees that one day, it will all end; he will have to say goodbye. He knows that leaving this world he relishes and adores and pines for like a lover will be the ultimate loss. He through this poem sings like one who's heartsick today for the parting that's surely coming, but in so many tomorrows from now. So I ask – Who feels at this level? Who at his age has ever felt these pangs and also been able to express them with such transcendent skill? As Jacob steps out onto the public stage and simultaneously matures in his private life, what in the world is yet to come from this once-in-a-century talent? – GR

World, O World
by Jacob Collier

World, oh, world
You've been my home
Home
Home
Now it's time for me to go
Give me the wings to fly, fly
Sudden rise and sudden fall
You've been with me through it all
Always keeping by my side
Always by my side

Love, oh, love
You've been a friend
Love, oh
Love, oh
Now the road must reach an end
Come, it is time to go (It's time to go)
Time is swift to come to pass
Nothing stays and nothing lasts
Always moving on (Moving on and on)
Always moving on

And when I call your name
I think I love again
I lay my world upon your hands
Again, again
And when you call my name
I feel my fire again
Oh, you are my soul
Oh, take me home

Until we meet
Until we meet again
Until we meet again
Until we meet again
Goodbye
Until we meet again, until we meet again
Meet again
Goodbye, goodbye
Goodbye, goodbye