setting of the poem by Carl Sandburg for SATB choir & chamber ensemble
complete set of scores & parts: total price $150.00
Special Starlight | Full Score in C
Special Starlight | Full Score Transposed
Special Starlight | Vocal Score
Special Starlight | Complete set of Instrumental Parts
full scores formatted for 11 X 17
vocal score and instrumental parts formatted for 9 X 12
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Special Starlight
Special Starlight
Complete Instrumental & Vocal Score in C
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catalog #: 058-0120
composer: Crystal Godfrey LaPoint
text: Carl Sandburg
difficulty level: collegiate to professional
year of publication: 2026
poem copyright permission:
“Special Starlight” from THE COMPLETE POEMS OF CARL SANDBURG, Revised and Expanded Edition.
Copyright © 1969, 1970 by Lilian Steichen Sandburg, Trustee.
Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
All Rights Reserved. Copyright © 2014 by Crystal Godfrey LaPoint
instrumentation: Chamber Orchestra
Flute (doubling Piccolo)
Oboe (doubling English Horn)
Clarinet in B-flat (doubling Bass Clarinet) Bassoon
Horn 1, 2
Trumpet in C 1, 2
Trombone
Euphonium
Tuba
Harp
Piano
Chorus SATB (SATB soloists)
@ duration: 17 minutes
ASCAP WORK ID: 932574879
copyright info: Copyright © 2014 Crystal Godfrey LaPoint
US copyright info: PAu 4-300-397
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Listen to a live performance recording from an historic 1989 concert commemorating the 100th anniversary of the opening of Crouse College, home of the Syracuse University School of Music. The late G. Burton Harbison leads the SU Oratorio Society with members of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, and the composer at the piano.
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Special Starlight
by Carl Sandburg
The Creator of night and of birth
Was the Maker of the stars.
Shall we look up now at stars in
Winter And call them always sweeter friends
Because this story of a Mother and a Child
Never is told with the stars left out?
Is it a Holy Night now when a child issues
Out of the dark and the unknown
Into the starlight?
Shall all wanderers over the earth, all homeless ones,
All against whom doors are shut and words spoken—
Shall these find the earth less strange tonight?
Shall they hear news, a whisper on the night wind?
“A Child is born.”
“The meek shall inherit the earth.”
Shall a quiet dome of stars high over
Make signs and a friendly language
Among all nations?
Shall they yet gather with no clenched fists at all,
And look into each other’s faces and see eye to eye,
And find ever new testaments of man as a sojourner
And a toiler and a brother of fresh understandings?
Shall there be now always believers
and more believers of sunset and moonrise,
of moonset and dawn,
of wheeling numbers
of stars, and wheels within wheels?
Shall plain habitations off the well-known roads
Count now for a little more than they used to?
Shall plain ways and people held close to earth
Be reckoned among things to be written about?
Shall tumult, grandeur, fanfare, panoply,
prepared loud noises
Stand equal to a quiet heart, thoughts, vast dreams
Of men conquering the earth
by conquering themselves?
Is there a time for ancient genius of man
To be set for comparison with the latest generations?
Is there a time for stripping to
simple childish questions?
On a Holy Night we may say:
The Creator of night and of birth
Was the Maker of the stars.
"Special Starlight" from The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg, Revised and Expanded Edition, copyright 1950 by Carl Sandburg, renewed 1978 by Margaret Sandburg, Helga Sandburg Crile, and Janet Sandburg, reprinted by permission of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.
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Comments:
In his deeply affecting poem, “Special Starlight”, Carl Sandburg muses about the timeless, ecumenical resonance of the nativity and the hopeful challenges it poses to all humankind. In this setting of his text for chorus and soloists with brass, woodwinds, harp, and piano, LaPoint pays tribute to the great American poet’s message, creating a musically soaring and emotionally powerful experience. From the haunting clarinet soliloquy in the opening bars, to the vivid dramas of childbirth and crucifixion, to the exquisitely precious vision of a peaceful and harmonious world, LaPoint’s artful instrumentation and choral writing rise to each occasion the lofty poem depicts. The composer’s vocabulary is quintessentially American - echoing both Barber and Copland - but with a uniquely lyrical voice that is entirely her own.
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