John Rutter / Paul Noble

"The Gift of Life" was written early in 2015 as a commission to honour a retiring Minister of Music at a church in Dallas, Texas. In planning this piece, John Rutter has stated: "In 1985 I had written a Requiem - which, like any Requiem, inevitably reflects on death - why not write the opposite, a work celebrating life? Unlike a Requiem, where a set form of words is laid down in Catholic liturgy, no framework exists for a celebration of life, and I had to choose (and in three cases, write) texts which were appropriate to a theme rarely expressed in music since Haydn's wondrous oratorio The Creation in 1798." The six movements reflect different facets of the miracles of creation and of life. This arrangement is written for combined Concert Band and Chorus, but may be performed by Concert Band alone. NOTE - The choral parts are sold separately, published by Oxford University Press.
"The gift of each day" is the fifth movement of "The Gift of Life", and its gentle, contemplative nature is contained equally in the text and the music. The text by John Rutter suggests that this piece can stand alone as well as being an important part of the whole suite: "The gift of each day rising out of darkness; the promise of light and the birth of new life, the dawn of new hope and a new beginning, if we turn to the light."

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