Invitation to Love

SMATBB a cappella
8:40 approx.

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In my setting of Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem Invitation to Love, I wanted to reflect on the text through the eyes of an immigrant. For many of immigrants in the United States, getting a pathway to permanent residency and eventual citizenship is an on-going goal. The warmth, joy, and relief of achieving that goal are emotions that I wish to explore and convey in this piece. As a side note, it was very meaningful for me to set poetry by a BIPOC writer who might have been under-appreciated and not afforded the opportunities to reach his full potential during his lifetime.

This piece also received a special jury commendation from The King’s Singers New Music Prize.

Invitation to Love
Paul Laurence Dunbar

Come when the nights are bright with stars
Or come when the moon is mellow;
Come when the sun his golden bars
Drops on the hay-field yellow.

Come in the twilight soft and gray,
Come in the night or come in the day,
Come, O love, whene’er you may,
And you are welcome, welcome.

You are sweet, O Love, dear Love,
You are soft as the nesting dove.
Come to my heart and bring it to rest
As the bird flies home to its welcome nest.

Come when my heart is full of grief
Or when my heart is merry;
Come with the falling of the leaf
Or with the redd’ning cherry.
Come when the year’s first blossom blows,
Come when the summer gleams and glows,
Come with the winter’s drifting snows,
And you are welcome, welcome.