Idumea & Lewis - Lilia Ensemble
Performed Live by Lilia Ensemble https://www.liliaensemble.org
Feat. Philip Hoch, bass
Idumea by Ananias Davisson (1816) (text by Charles Wesley (1763))
Lewis by Moira Smiley (1996) (text by Smiley and Wesley)
August 16, 2024 at First Baptist Church of Glendale (Glendale, CA)
Lilia Ensemble:
Soo Bin Kwon, soprano @soobinkwonsoprano
Elizabeth Laughton, mezzo soprano
Rebecca Russell, mezzo soprano
Audio/Video: Jose Daniel Ruiz
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Idumea
And am I born to die?
To lay this body down!
And must my trembling spirit fly
Into a world unknown?
A land of deepest shade,
Unpierced by human thought;
The dreary regions of the dead,
Where all things are forgot!
Soon as from earth I go,
What will become of me?
Eternal happiness or woe
Must then my portion be!
Waked by the trumpet sound,
I from my grave shall rise;
And see the Judge with glory crowned,
And see the flaming skies!
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Lewis
And am I born to die,
To lay this body down;
And must my trembling spirit fly
Into a world unknown?
And is my spirit lost
Into a great unknown,
And is th’eternal emptiness
The place where it has gone?
And is the mirth of life
The only joy to know,
And will my ever-questioning mind
Refuse the light of day?
And am I born to search
The heav’ns and earth below
For that which never can be found
And must be left unknown?
And is the love of peace
The answer to our woes,
And is the beauty of the earth
The balm for every wound?