for Soprano solo, Children’s choir (2 part), SATB choir, 3 Readers, strings, timpani, percussion, and piano
Music by John Muehleisen
Libretto assembled by John Muehleisen, including:
Traditional Songs from The Salish Nation of the Pacific Northwest,
Arabic Andalusia, Ireland, Korea, Spain, and West Africa;
Excerpts from The New Colossus (1883) by Emma Lazarus and
Letter from an Irish Mother to her son during the Potato Famine (1850);
Refugees by Brian Bilston;
Excerpts from No Irish Need Apply by Miss Kathleen O’Neil,
British National Anthem (God Save the Queen), and America (My Country, ‘Tis of Thee);
Quotes from detainees at the US/Mexico border (2013–2018)
and in the Japanese Internment Camp in Jerome, Arkansas (1943);
Excerpts from Borders: A Double Sonnet and Border Lines by Alberto Rios,
and from Isaiah 11:6, Matthew 25:35–36, and Romans 12:16
Commissioned by Matthew Melendez and the Great Bend Center for Music
in collaboration with the Distinguished Concerts International New York Premiere Project
and with support from the Mason County Washington Historic Preservation Commission
and Sierra Pacific Industries
Duration: 46:30 min.
Movements
1. Welcome Song
Soprano solo, SATB choir, Children’s choir, Instrumental ensemble
2. Mothers of Exiles
a. An Irish Mother’s Prayer (1850)
Soprano solo, Instrumental ensemble
b. The Mother of Exiles (1883)
SATB choir, Instrumental ensemble
3. Strangers in a Strange Land
a. Refugees
SATB choir, Instrumental ensemble
b. The Mother of Exiles – Reprise (Chorale)
SATB choir, Children’s choir, Instrumental ensemble
c. Welcome Song – Reprise
SATB choir, Children’s choir, Instrumental ensemble
4. Interlude: No Irish Need Apply (1863)
SATB choir, Soprano solo, Instrumental ensemble
5. Sweet Land of Liberty
a. Anthem
SATB choir, Readers (incl. Soprano solo), Instrumental ensemble
b. Lullaby: Arrorró mi Niño
Soprano solo, Instrumental ensemble
c. Border Lines
Children’s choir, Readers, SATB choir, Instrumental ensemble
6. Song of the Stranger
TUTTI: SATB choir, Children’s choir, Soprano solo, Instrumental ensemble
Instrumental Ensemble
- String Quintet or String Orchestra (preferred) – 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass
- 2 Percussion
- Timpani (5), Crash Cymbals
- Suspended Cymbal, Glockenspiel, Bass Drum, Triangle, Crash Cymbals, Snare Drum
- Piano
Video credits: Great Bend Chorale, Youth Chorale, + Orchestra; Tess Altiveros, soprano, conducted by Matthew Melendez; WORLD PREMIERE of Full Version on Nov. 17, 2023 at Bastyr University Chapel in Kenmore, WA.
FULL SCORE (String Orchestra Edition)
NOTE: A complimentary PDF perusal copy of the Borders full score is available free of charge from the composer at john@johnmuehleisen.com. The full score, vocal scores, and orchestra parts will be available for purchase in early Summer 2026.
PROGRAM NOTES
Borders: An Overview
Borders was commissioned by Matthew Melendez and the Great Bend Center for Music in collaboration with the Distinguished Concerts International New York Premiere Project and with support from the Mason County Washington Historic Preservation Commission and Sierra Pacific Industries. Due to time constraints at its original 2019 Carnegie Hall premiere, the performance was not able to include three of the movements originally planned for the full version of the work. But thanks to generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the work is now complete in its full form. Borders is scored for soprano solo, adult SATB choir, children’s chorus, strings, piano, timpani, and percussion.
On one level, Borders might be called an “immigration cantata”; however, it’s about much more than immigration. Beginning with a Pacific Northwest Salish song of welcome, Borders weaves together traditional European, African, Asian, Middle Eastern, and Latinx music and lyrics with the poetry of Emma Lazarus, Brian Bilston, and Alberto Ríos, a letter from an Irish mother during the potato famine, and quotes from immigrants both past and present to deliver a riveting and emotional musical odyssey that explores not only the history of immigration in America and the enduring significance of America’s identity as the ultimate cultural “melting pot”; it also proposes a vision of life together that transcends the physical borders between nations and states, as well as the more symbolic political, social, and cultural borders, and even borders between each of us as individuals. On another level the work explores the question: “How should we treat the stranger in our midst?”—whether or not they are immigrants or just someone who is different from us—as well as the age-old question, “Who is my neighbor?”
Ultimately, Borders endeavors to transcend the increasingly divisive political discussions about immigration and to put a human face on the root reasons for immigration. Borders is not a political work and is neither pro- nor anti-immigration—in fact, both sides are represented in the work. Rather, it endeavors to challenge us all to place the complex and emotionally charged topic of immigration policy within the context of compassion and empathy for our fellow human beings. The text for movement 2a.“An Irish Mother’s Prayer” is a letter from a desperate Irish mother written to her older son during the Irish potato famine of the mid-19th century in which she describes her suffering and that of her younger son. In it she begs her older son (already in America) to fulfill his promise to bring them to America. In that spirit, Borders encourages us to look beyond the complex political issues around immigration in order to put a human face on the discussion and to consider the reasons why people would want to emigrate from their current homes to another country, especially to America, with its promise of hope, liberty, freedom, and the ability to make a better life for themselves and for their families. In other words, to fulfill their “yearning to breathe free,” as Emma Lazarus states in her poem, The New Colossus, the words of which are enshrined on the Statue of Liberty and which form the text for movement 2b. “The Mother of Exiles” in Borders.
The human face of immigration is also described so eloquently in Alberto Rios’ poem, Border Lines:
We seem to live in a world of maps:
But in truth we live in a world made
Not of paper and ink but of people.
Which way we look at the drawing
Makes all the difference.
Those lines are our lives.
Together,
Let us turn the map until we see clearly:
The border is what joins us,
Not what separates us.
– John Muehleisen, Nov 2023
Borders: An Origin Story (Welcome Song)
Conductor’s Note
Borders draws from many of the constituent cultures that make up the American tapestry. It was inspired by, and begins with, a Salish “Song of Welcome.”
The Salish people—the indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America—understand that making music is inherently an act of community, and as a result, their culture has great reverence for the power of song. So great is their respect for this power that there are rich cultural traditions (and taboos) about how and when and by whom (and with whom) individual songs may be performed.
Imagine, then, being visited by an entirely different race of people whom you had never before encountered [notably, English explorers in the person of Captain George Vancouver and his expeditionary party], who look and dress very differently from your own people, wielding completely alien technology and an unrecognizable language—and choosing to sing a song of welcome to them! This was the response of several tribal communities from the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state upon first contact with European explorers. The Salish knew that making music meant making community; that singing illuminates all that we have in common.
– Matthew Melendez, 2020
Composer’s Note
When Matthew Melendez—founder and artistic Director of the Great Bend Chorale in Union, WA— approached me about composing a cantata on the theme of immigration, I was immediately intrigued by the idea. But when he introduced me to the concept of the Welcome Song as described above, I was all in, particularly after he played a recording of the Salish Welcome Song that opens the cantata! The notion of greeting one another with a song is such a beautiful way to manifest and to share identity, as well as to create connection between diverse communities.
“Welcome Song” opens with a musical scene depicting Vancouver’s ship rocking gently back and forth in mist and fog on the calm inland waters of what is now Washington state, as it slowly approaches one of the Salish nation’s villages. As the evocative opening unfolds, we hear faint hints of a tune in the violin solo emerging from the mist, answered by a textless solo soprano. The tune slowly begins to take shape as the ship draws closer to the village and as the mist and fog gradually clear to reveal the tune of the Salish “Welcome Song,” which emerges fully after the fog clears and the explorers can clearly view the village and row ashore to greet and to be greeted by the members of the Salish tribe as the indigenous inhabitants sing their welcome song (heard in the choir sopranos). As is the tradition, the visitors are invited to sing one of their own songs in response, which is sung by the tenors, who present As a beam o’er the face of the waters may glow (a Thomas Moore poem), sung to the tune of a traditional Irish folksong, The Young Man’s Dream, thought to be an early version of the famous song Danny Boy.
As the concept for this movement evolved, I suggested to Matthew that each tune should continue and repeat as each of the new tunes enters, forming a quodlibet—a musical form that originated in 15th-century Europe in which two or more melodies (usually popular tunes) are combined and superimposed. In this case, I suggested that I find songs and tunes representing the 5 major continents (The Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East), from which people representing a multitude of different countries and cultures emigrated to establish new lives in the United States. Thus, “Welcome Song” is a musical and textual metaphor for several aspects of American culture: (1) The famous “Melting Pot” of various cultures, by which the United States is frequently known, (2) various cultures welcoming one another to their new lives in the U.S. with their own songs, and (3) the harmonious interplay of the tunes as they complement one another, symbolizing how members of each culture treat one another within the best of American culture. Four of the tunes are well-known songs from their respective cultures, including Fanga Alafia (a West Nigerian welcome song representing African cultures), and Arirang (a traditional Korean song representing Asian cultures), while the Middle Eastern melody is a dance tune, which appears in the violins toward the end of the movement. The tunes appear in roughly the same order as people from the various continents immigrated to the U.S.
One of the outcomes of this “experiment” of combining these tunes from radically different cultures and areas of the world—which had virtually no effect on each other until world-wide exploration began—is that I discovered that all four of the songs are based on the pentatonic (5-note) scale, which is common to multiple cultures around the world, certainly a meaningful metaphor on its own and one of the reasons that the songs all fit with one another harmoniously, with the Middle Eastern dance tune adding some musical “spice” and energy to the lyricism of the primarily diatonic/pentatonic songs, all painting a musical picture of the great Melting Pot that is America.
– John Muehleisen, 2024
LIBRETTO