Esther's Prayer

This is one of my very first and most revised pieces, written back in 1986. Because prayer is not mentioned anywhere in the Hebrew text, the inclusion of this number could be controversial. Jewish people conmemorate this scene of the Esther story with a day of fasting, for one day before Purim. Most of the lyrics used for this piece comes from the additions found in the Septuagint Greek translation of Esther; you can find complete texts of these additions in the New Jerusalem Bible, and other Catholic translations.

For this piece, I added two phrases to the Greek text, which in my estimation depicts how Esther might have felt when she spoke to God: "Can You hear me/us?" and "Listen to my/our plea/prayer!"

The world premiere of this piece took place on Purim (3/21/08) at the Beth-El Synagogue Center in New Rochelle, New York. The following video is a performance by Mezzo Soprano Valeria Girardi, and Diane Guernsey at the piano. (See related performance of Let My People Live!)

You can also listen to version 6.24 of this piece; this mp3 file was created with strings used for accompaniment, and a warm pad setting to simulate the vocal part.

Measures: 67

Approx. time: 4 min 21 sec

Latest version: 6.24

Latest revision date: 3/7/98

Lyrics:

My Lord, my King, my God,
come to my help for I'm to take my life into my hands.
God, I'm alone! Hear my prayer! [x2]
Lord! remember me, Oh Lord, give me courage, deliver me,
let your hands come to my help.
Only You are Lord, King of Abraham Oh God!
Can you hear me? Listen to my plea.
Listen to Your servant in despair;
deliver me from wicked hands,
free me from my fear!
Lord remember us, Oh Lord.
Deliver us, give us courage, save us by Your Hands, come to my help;
we have no one else only You are King of Abraham.
Oh God! Can You hear us? Listen to our prayer!
Listen to Your people in despair,
deliver us from wicked hands.
If I die, I die!

You are visitor number