Orchestra of Southern Utah's video: When I Consider the Heavens by Alex Byers

Commissioned by the Orchestra of Southern Utah for the April 12, 2018 "Glorious Galaxies" Concert. Guest vocalist Matthew Clegg with OSU under the direction of Xun Sun. Copyright 2018 by Orchestra of Southern Utah with all rights reserved. Recorded by Steven Swift and Larry Life. Alex Byers wrote the music and here are his program notes: When I was commissioned to write this piece, I was both exhilarated and completely overwhelmed. Cancer. It’s a tough word to hear, let alone to write music about. It touches so many people and its effects are so incredibly different. Since receiving this commission, at least 5 people within my immediate sphere of influence have been diagnosed with cancers ranging from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma to Stage 4 brain cancer. For some people it is literally the kiss of death. For others it becomes a new lease on life-an awakening to one’s own mortality and the beauty and fragility of life. How on earth was I supposed to cram all of this into 7 minutes and make it something hope-inspiring at the same time? I think the challenge of any artist with subject matter like this is to be truthful. It would be an insult to the survivors of such an ordeal and to the family members left behind to sit through 7 minutes of saccharine. No-we have to be real. We have to tell the whole story. There can be no ignoring of the gruesome strength of the so-called “Emperor of Maladies”-to do so would be naïve. It would not bring hope, only annoyance. I went through several different texts and several different versions of this commission and ran up against this problem every time. It just always seemed too, well, sappy, for lack of a better word. I could not make it seem real to me. Finally, after a lot of scrapping and re-writing and starting over, I was reading in the book of Psalms and came across the following verse in chapter 56: 3 What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. 4 In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me. I had never considered this statement in light of cancer before, but isn’t this exactly what happens to a person with cancer? Their own flesh literally turns against them, and the result is frightening. But the author of this text has something (or someone) in which to hope. This is the reality to me. True, the challenges that we face make us afraid, deathly afraid at times. We must acknowledge that. But when we have something to anchor our hope, we can face this fear with the fortitude and grace that I have seen from so many who have gone up to battle against that terrible beast, cancer. The text that grew out of this is an amalgamation of selected verses of several Psalms (8, 36, 56, and 147). I am overjoyed to have Matt Clegg (an old friend of mine) present this to you with the Orchestra of Southern Utah. It is my hope that this my expression of solace extended to survivors, current battlers, and family members can do what it is intended to. To order a CD or DVD of the performance: http://myosu.org/assets/generic_cd-dvd_order_form_web_version.jpg For more information on the orchestra go to https://www.myosu.org