One of Steven Sametz’s most enduring works, I Have Had Singing sets a text excerpted from Ronald Blythe’s book, Akenfield, Portrait of an English Village, detailing life in the English countryside at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century. Blythe interviews Fred Mitchell, an 85 year-old ploughman. Mr. Mitchell related how difficult his childhood had been, working from sun up to sun down, wearing his hands raw, with little time for leisure. In a moment of self-realization, Mr. Mitchell tells Blythe, “So I lie. I have had pleasure. I have had singing.”

Sametz’s setting captures a moment in time, when Mr. Mitchell shares with his interviewer how much singing impacted his life. Close harmonies and a special attention to text and word stress are hallmarks of Sametz’s choral works. Here he accesses the full, rich coloristic potential of the human voice to carry Mitchell’s words into eternity.

Also available in SSAA and TTBB voicings.