Reborn by Living Water
F.144
A warm SATB setting for baptism or Eastertide, built on progressive voice entries that expand from soprano-alto duet to full choir. Piano counterpoint enriches the hymn-like texture, and a half-step modulation near the end lifts the final verse to a climactic close.
Listen
Perusal Score
Program Notes
Reborn by Living Water was written for a small church choir light on tenor and bass voices. The progressive voice entries—soprano and alto alone in the first verse, tenor joining for the refrain, bass not arriving until the second verse—grew directly from that practical constraint, but the gradual buildup became a compositional feature in its own right, mirroring the text’s movement from quiet reflection to full-voiced proclamation.
The piano plays more than an accompanying role here, carrying independent counterpoint that enriches the texture beyond what the voices alone provide. And a cleverly hidden modulation into the final verse—prepared entirely by the piano while the choir rests—lifts the music for its climactic close. Appropriate for baptism or Eastertide.
Performance Notes
Comfortable ranges, diatonic vocal writing (all chromaticism is confined to the piano), and homophonic texture throughout place Reborn by Living Water at Level 2 (Easy). The progressive voice entries and terraced dynamics (p–ff) make it well suited to smaller or developing choirs.
Notes for Directors
- Voices enter progressively—SA at m. 4, Tenor at m. 19, Bass at m. 39—building texture across three verse-refrain cycles.
- In the second verse (mm. 40–51), SA sustain a wordless “Ooo” vocalise while TB carry the text underneath.
- The modulation from E minor to F minor (m. 77) is a standard semitone key-raise, prepared by a two-measure piano transition while all voices are silent.
- Soprano divisi in the coda (mm. 117–119): Voice 1 ascends to Ab5 while Voice 2 holds Ab4.
The Text
Reborn by Living Water
The green blade rises from the buried grain,
and baptized in Christ we, too, live again:
we share by graceful pardon in His risen life!
Reborn by living water, redeemed by Christ.
The empty tomb proclaims the good news:
that love conquers sin, a battle we would lose,
except by graceful pardon in His risen life!
Reborn by living water, redeemed by Christ.
And so, my friend, you, too, can be
a grain transformed by God’s mighty deed
and share His love and pardon in His risen life!
Reborn by living water, redeemed by Christ.
—Christopher Lee Fraley (2006)