Neswick — The day thou gavest [SSATB + organ]

Written for the Choristers of St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral, San Diego.

The day you gave us, Lord, is ended,
the darkness falls at your request;
to you our morning hymns ascended,
your praise shall sanctify our rest.

We thank you that your Church, unsleeping
while earth rolls onward into light,
through all the world her watch is keeping
and never rests by day or night.

As over continent and island
each dawn leads to another day,
the voice of prayer is never silent,
nor do the praises die away.

So be it, Lord! Your throne shall never,
like earth’s proud empires, pass away;
your kingdom stands and grows forever
until there dawns your glorious day.

BRUCE NESWICK is the Artist-in-Residence at St. James by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, La Jolla, California. He is a graduate of Pacific Lutheran University and Yale University, and his organ teachers have included David Dahl, Margaret Irwin-Brandon, Gerre Hancock, Robert Baker and Lionel Rogg. Mr. Neswick also holds Fellowship degrees from the American Guild of Organists and the Royal School of Church Music and was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of the South in 2016. He has conducted dozens of RSCM summer camps and festivals for boy and girl choristers and has been commissioned to compose for performers and churches throughout North America. Mr. Neswick’s skill at improvisation garnered him three first prizes from the 1989 San Anselmo Organ Festival; the 1990 AGO convention in Boston; and the 1992 Rochette Concours at the Conservatoire de Musique in Geneva, Switzerland. Active as a recitalist, choral conductor and composer, he has performed and taught at many past AGO national conventions, including those in Dallas, Seattle, Washington, DC, and Boston Mr. Neswick is represented by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists.