Composer’s Note:

Setting of a prayer from the Reform Jewish liturgy;

Grant Us Peace was commissioned to honor the late Rabbi Leonard Poller’s long and distinguished service to Larchmont Temple. It was performed at his retirement ceremony. The text is Rabbi Poller’s favorite prayer from the Reform Jewish Liturgy: the English version of the Shalom Rav, which is ecumenical in outreach:

Grant us peace, Your most precious gift, O Eternal Source of peace, and give us the will to proclaim its message to all the peoples of the earth. Bless our country that it may always be a stronghold of peace, and its advocate among the nations. May contentment reign within its borders, health and happiness within its homes. Strengthen the bonds of friendship among the inhabitants of all lands, and may the love of Your name hallow every home and every heart. Blessed is the Eternal God, the Source of peace.

The piece may be performed in either liturgical or secular contexts. The setting follows liturgical practice, where the cantor or soloist sings a portion of text which is repeated by the congregation/choir. In several sections these repetitions form rounds, with each new voice starting from the beginning when the first voice reaches an asterisk (*).

In each of the rounds, the cantor/soloist may sing the entire section alone before the congregation/choir starts the round.

In the secular performances, the soloist(s) are likely to be from the choir. If the choir is large enough, a different soloist may be used in each section.

Editor’s Note:

Robert Sterns Grant Us Peace (An Orchestral Prayer) is an orchestral work of approximately seven minutes duration. The piece received its premiere performance on Saturday, April 2, 1960, at the Memorial Chapel of the University of Redlands in Redlands, California, as part of the Fifth Annual Orchestral Symposium of American Music. The performance was given by the University-Community Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Edward C. Tritt, founder and music director of the ensemble.

Founded in 1950, the University-Community Symphony Orchestra brought together musicians from the University of Redlands and the surrounding community and played an important role in the musical life of Southern California. The annual Orchestral Symposium of American Music presented by the ensemble was devoted to works by contemporary composers.

A review of the symposium concert in the Redlands Daily Facts (April 4, 1960) described Sterns work as a sensitive episode in tonal colors, seriously drawn and not over-extended. Stern had previously been represented at the Redlands symposium in 1956, when the festival presented the premiere of his orchestral work In Memoriam Abraham (published by the American Composers Alliance).

This present work was subsequently performed in 1961 at the Third Annual Symposium of Contemporary American Music at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, where the Symposium Orchestra, conducted by Robert Baustian, presented new orchestral works by contemporary composers including Stern.

Grant Us Peace was later performed by the Hartford Civic Orchestra on Thursday, January 31, 1963, conducted by Robert Brawley, in a concert held at King Philip School in West Hartford, Connecticut. Writing in the Hartford Times, reviewer Patricia Macko described the work as a somberly lyric work that, to these ears, has more the character of chamber music