SATB + organ | Difficulty: easy-medium | Duration: approximately 3:30
Orchestral version available by special order: orders@catchwordmusic.com

Commissioned for the 150th Annual Carthage College Christmas Festival, this warm and tuneful carol setting features a text by famed lyricist Charles Anthony Silvestri.

Shining star in highest heaven,
Calling all this golden day;
Precious gift, so freely given,
Sweetly in a manger lay.
Gloria, gloria in excelsis Deo!
Find us worthy, Lord, we pray.

Fire of love in hearts ignited,
Light of spirit burning bright,
Trav’lers on the path united,
Sharing one another’s sight.
Gloria, gloria in excelsis Deo!
Guide us through the dark of night.

When our path begins to darken,
Somber shadows lengthening,
To thy silver light we hearken,
Angel voices as they sing.
Gloria, gloria in excelsis Deo!
O’er the valley echoing.

Praise to God the Father loving,
Praise to God the shining Son,
Praise to God the Spirit moving,
All-Creator, Three in One.
Gloria, gloria in excelsis Deo!
Thy great work has just begun. 

Note: the choir+organ version does not include the interlude and modulation heard here from 2:50–3:25.

KATHERINE WEBB (b. 1990) is Canon for Music at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, Oregon, where she directs the Cathedral’s choral ensembles, leads its Royal School of Church Music in America (RSCMA)-affiliated Choir School, and manages its concert series, which often features Trinity’s landmark Rosales organ. A former RSCMA board member and active Association of Anglican Musicians participant, she works as a choral clinician, composer, and organist nationwide. Katie earned her doctorate in organ performance at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she was a student of Christopher Young, and studied choral conducting with Dominick DiOrio, Betsy Burleigh, and Walter Huff. She received the MM in organ performance from IU and graduated summa cum laude from St. Olaf College with degrees in organ performance and vocal music education. At St. Olaf, she studied organ with Catherine Rodland and conducting with Anton Armstrong, and sang in the St. Olaf Choir. An award-winning educator, Katie served as an instructor in music theory and aural skills at IU, receiving the Wennerstrom Fellowship for excellence in pedagogy. She was named to The Diapason’s “Twenty Under Thirty” Class of 2019 for outstanding achievement in church music and organ performance. Her compositions have been performed at churches, universities, and festivals nationally.

Award-winning lyricist CHARLES ANTHONY SILVESTRI (b. 1965) enjoys the challenge of solving creative problems and has provided custom choral texts, opera libretti, program notes and other writing for more than a hundred composers from all over the world. For inspiration he draws on his travels, his education as a medievalist, and his deep love of words and music. When he is not writing you may find him playing Irish traditional music at a pub or hunched over his desk painting medieval-style illuminations or sacred icons. As a clinician Silvestri speaks to choirs, classes, and concert audiences about his works, the creative process, the marriage of words and music, and about his collaborative relationships with composers.  He is the author of three books, and a retired educator with 40 years of service in the classroom from kindergarten through the college level. He currently lives and writes in Lawrence, Kansas. For more on Silvestri’s work, see www.charlesanthonysilvestri.com.