Behind the Score: A Sky of Tomorrows

In late February and early March of 2025, I was thrilled to have A Sky of Tomorrows performed at two concerts by da Pacem, an excellent local community choir, directed by Dr. Ronald Staheli. The recording that you hear in the video above is from one of those performances. Here is a bit of the background behind this piece of music:

A few years ago, I came across Carl Sandburg's poem "Prairie" from the publication Cornhuskers. I was quite taken by these phrases from it:

I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes.
Yesterday is a wind gone down.
a sun dropped in the west.

I tell you there is nothing in the world
only an ocean of to-morrows,
a sky of to-morrows.

I love the message about looking to the future and the "ocean" or "sky" of possibilities it holds. I immediately thought that I should set it to music. But the poem is quite lengthy and the two phrases above didn't really seem like quite enough text. So I ended up logging it in the back of my mind and I moved on. But, over the next few years, these phrases kept coming back to me quite often.

Finally, in the summer of 2024, I sat down in earnest to figure out how I could take these phrases and create a choral piece that was somewhere around three and a half to 5 minutes long. To do that, I needed a bit more text, so I combed through the poem searching for other short phrases that would tie into a theme of looking forward to a new day. I found a few and then I compiled them into a sort of poem of my own. After I had the words mostly figured out, I went about setting it to music, which I was able to do over the next few weeks.

Once I had the music in a nearly completed state, I had a good friend look it over. I'm truly grateful for the wisdom of that friend! After the music builds to a climax in the phrase, "I will hanker after nothing so much as one more sunrise, one more sunrise," the music returns back to the main theme. At first, I had the words also return to "I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes." My friend's feedback was something very close to this:

"NO! Don't go back to the past!" It's time to look forward!"

It was so obvious once she pointed it out! And I was a bit embarrassed that I hadn't seen it myself. So, I quickly went back to the Sandburg poem and searched again for another couple lines I could use that were more forward looking, and I found these phrases:

The phantom of a yellow rooster flaunting a scarlet comb, on top of a dung pile crying hallelujah to the streaks of daylight

When the morning sun is on the trumpet-vine blossoms, sing at the kitchen pans: Shout All Over God's Heaven.

I decided to leave out the part about the rooster on a dung pile 😁 and the singing at the kitchen pans, and I turned them into the phrases:

Cry hallelujah to the streaks of daylight;
Shout and sing to the morning sun.

With those phrases in place, I was able to complete the song and start sending it out. One of the first takers was a former BYU student of mine, Daniel Clegg, who was the choir teacher at Riverton High School. His A Cappella choir premiered the piece in October of 2024. The choir loved it and it was very well received by the audience. Shortly after that, it was also performed several times during the fall season by the Westminster Singers and Vocalis, Jane Fjeldsted director.

I'm so grateful for those early performances and the feedback I was able to get from them to really hone in on a final product. I have received such positive comments from choir members and audiences about this piece! I think the message of leaving the past behind and looking ahead to another sunrise and the "sky of tomorrows" it represents, is a message that resonates with us all!

Text

I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes.
Yesterday is a wind gone down.
I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes;
  a sun dropped in the west.

In the morning hours, in the dawn,
The sun puts out the stars of the sky.
And at sundown 
I will hanker after nothing so much as one more sunrise
One more sunrise!

Cry hallelujah to the streaks of daylight;
Shout and sing to the morning sun.

I tell you there is nothing in the world
  only an ocean of tomorrows;
  a sky of tomorrows.

From excerpts from “Prairie” - Published in Cornhuskers by Carl Sandburg 
Compiled by Lane Johnson

Sandburg, Carl.
Cornhuskers.
1918. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1918.