The Immigrant Experience
Listen to the December 2017 performance of John Kramer’s cantata, The Immigrant Experience…
Performed by the Winchester Unitarian Society & Arlington Street Church Choirs, 10 Dec 2017
Sheet Music
Please print out a double sided copy of the vocal score, available here as a pdf. It can be 3 hole punched and placed in a plain, black binder for the performance. If you need, hard copy versions of the score can be made available by emailing [email address here].
Sheet Music is located here
Soprano Practice Files
1. Welcome & The Bosom of America
2. Where Do You Come From? & The Immigrant Struggle
3. Journey from the South & We Remember, We Cry
4. Finale
Alto Practice Files
1. Welcome & The Bosom of America
2. Where Do You Come From? & The Immigrant Struggle
3. Journey from the South & We Remember, We Cry
4. Finale
Tenor Practice Files
1. Welcome & The Bosom of America
2. Where Do You Come From? & The Immigrant Struggle
3. Journey from the South & We Remember, We Cry
4. Finale
Bass Practice Files
1. Welcome & The Bosom of America
2. Where Do You Come From? & The Immigrant Struggle
3. Journey from the South & We Remember, We Cry
4. Finale
The Immigrant Experience
I. Welcome
Chorus: “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” – Emma Lazarus, New Colossus
Freedom from oppression,
Freedom from want,
Freedom of religion.
Welcome to this land of freedom for all,
The promise of freedom for all.
2. The Bosom of America
Baritone: The bosom of America is open to receive
not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations and Religions
whom we shall welcome to participation of all our rights and privileges, if by decency and propriety of conduct the appear to merit the enjoyment.
– George Washington, Letter to an association of Irish American immigrants, 1783.
Chorus: Welcome to this land of freedom for all, the promise of freedom for all.
Tenor recit: “A right which nature has given to all, of departing from the country in which chance, not choice, has placed them.”
– Thomas Jefferson, A Summary View of the Rights of British America, 1774
3. Where Do You Come From?
Chorus: We come from lands afar in different times, from many places, a nation of immigrants
I come from the north,
I come from the south,
I came from east and west,
I come from Asia,
I come from Europe,
I come from Africa,
We come from Mexico, China, India, Philippines, Vietnam, El Salvador, Cuba, South Korea, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Canada, Jamaica, Colombia, Haiti, Germany, Honduras, Peru. Where do you come from?Poland, Ecuador, Russia, Iran, Italy, Ukraine, Pakistan, Japan, Brazil, Guyana, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Bangladesh, Iraq, Venezuela, Laos, Ethiopia, Portugal, Egypt.Foreign born population of the U.S. by country of birth in 2013
Welcome to this land of immigrants.
4. The Immigrant Struggle
Chorus: What’s your story? Did you struggle when you got here?
Tenor Solo:
Eighteen hundred and forty five
The wretched blight did then arrive
To their homes they said, “Goodbye.”
Only to find, “No Irish need apply.”
Chorus: (Welcome to the promise of freedom for all.)
Tenor Solo:
From war and revolution,
They came to mine for gold,
And built the Western railway,
Through sun and heat and cold.
They huddled into Chinatown,
the sole safe place they knew,
until they were excluded
in Eighteen Ninety-Two.5. Journey from the South
Chorus: Was your journey hard? Did you get here by walking?
Miles and miles of walking.
Over hills, over mountains
In the sun and the rain we just keep walking.
Eighteen hundred miles from Honduras to the U.S.A.
Cross the desert we keep walking,
Fourteen hundred miles from Guatemala to the U.S.A.
Hours of riding on a train, on the tops of the train, on the train on the tracks, on the train called,”La Bestia”
Leaving home for the unknown, such a home we could not stay.
Selling everything we own, hoping for a better day.
We just keep moving.
Days and days of moving,
Follow the coyote through the desert
All you can see is just the sand
Follow the coyote cross the border.6. We Remember, We Cry
Soprano: Let us pause as witnesses, to remember and cry.
We remember those taken against their will, torn away from their land.
We remember those torn away from their land to make room for others.
We remember those whose journey goes on and on, cross the river,
but not to the land of the living, may their journey end, may they rest in peace.
Chorus: We remember and we cry.
7. Finale
Chorus: This land of freedom.
Baritone: “The land flourished because it was fed from so many sources, nourished by many cultures and traditions and peoples.”
– Lyndon B. Johnson, From his remarks at the signing of the immigration bill, Liberty Island, New York, October 3, 1965.
Chorus: A promised land of freedom.
Tenor: “Nearly All Americans have ancestors who braved the oceans, liberty loving risk takers in search on an ideal. Immigration is not just a link to America’s past; it’s also a bridge to America’s future.”
– George Bush, from his Remarks on the Signing the Immigration Act of 1990, November 20, 1990
Chorus: Freedom of religion.
Baritone: “Offering an Asylum to the persecuted and oppressed of every Nation and Religion. The religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate.”
– James Madison, from his Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments, ca. June 20, 1785.
Chorus: Freedom of opportunity.
Tenor: We have always believed it possible for men and women to rise as far as their talent and energy allow. Neither race nor place of birth should affect their chances.”
– Robert Kennedy, from his forward to John F. Kennedy’s posthumously published book, A Nation of Immigrants, 1963.
Chorus: Freedom from oppression.
Baritone: “The United States should be an asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty.”
– Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776
Chorus: “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
– Emma Lazarus, New Colossus
7. Finale
Chorus: This land of freedom.
Baritone: “The land flourished because it was fed from so many sources, nourished by many cultures and traditions and peoples.”
– Lyndon B. Johnson, From his remarks at the signing of the immigration bill, Liberty Island, New York, October 3, 1965.
Chorus: A promised land of freedom.
Tenor: “Nearly All Americans have ancestors who braved the oceans, liberty loving risk takers in search on an ideal. Immigration is not just a link to America’s past; it’s also a bridge to America’s future.”
– George Bush, from his Remarks on the Signing the Immigration Act of 1990, November 20, 1990
Chorus: Freedom of religion.
Baritone: “Offering an Asylum to the persecuted and oppressed of every Nation and Religion. The religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate.”
– James Madison, from his Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments, ca. June 20, 1785.
Chorus: Freedom of opportunity.
Tenor: We have always believed it possible for men and women to rise as far as their talent and energy allow. Neither race nor place of birth should affect their chances.”
– Robert Kennedy, from his forward to John F. Kennedy’s posthumously published book, A Nation of Immigrants, 1963.
Chorus: Freedom from oppression.
Baritone: “The United States should be an asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty.”
– Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776
Chorus: “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
– Emma Lazarus, New Colossus
Welcome to this land of freedom for all,
The promised of freedom for all.
All unattributed texts by John Kramer
Performed by the Winchester Unitarian Society & Arlington Street Church Choirs