Cleveland Chamber Choir: "Choose Something Like a Star" by Randall Thompson

Acting Artistic Director Gregory Ristow conducts the Cleveland Chamber Choir in a performance of “Choose Something Like a Star” from "Frostiana" by Randall Thompson (1899-1984). Text by Robert Frost (1874-1963).

Recorded LIVE on April 2, 2023 at Drinko Hall, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH. Pianist Javier González.

TEXT:
O Star (the fairest one in sight),
We grant your loftiness the right
To some obscurity of cloud—
It will not do to say of night,
Since dark is what brings out your light.
Some mystery becomes the proud.
But to be wholly taciturn
In your reserve is not allowed.
Say something to us we can learn
By heart and when alone repeat.
Say something! And it says, ‘I burn.’
But say with what degree of heat.
Talk Fahrenheit, talk Centigrade.
Use language we can comprehend.
Tell us what elements you blend.
It gives us strangely little aid,
But does tell something in the end.
And steadfast as Keats’ Eremite,
Not even stooping from its sphere,
It asks a little of us here.
It asks of us a certain height,
So when at times the mob is swayed
To carry praise or blame too far,
We may choose something like a star
To stay our minds on and be staid.

Cleveland Chamber Choir: More Than Music

This concert of the Cleveland Chamber Choir and the Cleveland Composers Guild is supported in part by generous grants from Bascom Little Fund, Ohio Arts Council, Cleveland Foundation; in-kind support from Cleveland State University; and corporate sponsorship from Forge Biologics and Good Company Cleveland.