The Graceful Lily

The Graceful Lily
Dedicated to Susie Lancaster
I Corinthians 15:20

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(Just a note: This MP3 is a men’s ensemble voicing of the original unison score – because those were the voices I could record…)

Church Calendar: Holy Week, Good Friday, Easter

This song was motivated by the thought of an Easter lily, many of which Valley Church places in the sanctuary around Easter week. The lily represents the triumph of Christ over the grave, and death, and hell, and so appropriately is shaped like a horn to be blown in victory. There are two verses (the first of which is quoted below), one which speaks of the crucifixion and the other of which describes the resurrection.

There are multiple clues, the most important being that “Susie” simply means “lily.” But wait – there’s more! For the other clues, some figures needed are:

• “Lancaster” contains nine letters.
• “Susie” contains five letters.
• There are four people in Susie’s family (Susie, her brother, and her parents).

On to the fun:

• The tempo indica is 9 5 beats per minute.
• The principal rhythmic motif is a polyrhythm of 9 against 4.
• The stretto section after the second verse has a polyrhythm of 9 against 5.
• The “Amen” measure has five beats (and, of course, all the others have four).
• You might also note that a lily has sixfold symmetry (petals, etc.), and therefore has primary symmetries of 2x and 3x (which, of course, are clues in the sense that 2*2=4 and 3*3=9).
• By the way, all of the 9-tuplets are pitchwise divided into subsets of 4 and 5.
• The harmonies of the piece are largely based on the pentatonic (i.e. five-tone) scale.
• Each phrase has 14 syllables.

And finally, the key signatures of C-sharp and D major have 7 and 2 sharps respectively. So what? Well:

• 7 – 2 = 5,
• 7 + 2 = 9, and
• 7 * 2 = 14 which, of course, is 5 + 9.

Had enough math yet? Accompanists, be thankful… I actually considered writing this in the key of D# major (nine sharps, written as two double sharps and five normal sharps…).

One more thing… The accompaniment is written in the style of Claude Debussy, who happens to be one of my favorite composers. It so happens that he also is one of Susie’s favorites!

The graceful lily wilts in dark as Christ the Savior dies,
Though beaten, He makes no remark, though tortured, never cries.
Though crushed beneath the curse which man’s depravity requires,
The lily, like the Crucified, accepts, extends, expires.

The lily springs from hardened ground a glorious pure white horn,
At morning it prepares to sound the hope of man reborn,
As God’s own Lamb was sacrificed, assigned the sinner’s grave,
So rose in power Jesus Christ, our fallen souls to save.
Amen.

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