Melissa Dunphy

Commissioned by the Quincy Choral Society, Sarah Labrie - Artistic Director, for the 400th Anniversary of the Settlement of Quincy, Massachusetts.

An entreaty to strive for goodness loosely inspired by 18th-century folk music—a favorite genre of Abigail Adams. Text by Abigail Adams and James Thomson.

Text

Ye Winds
Adapted from letters by Abigail Adams and "Winter" by James Thomson

Ye winds that now begin to blow
With boisterous sweep, I raise my voice to you.
Where are your stores, ye powerful beings!
In what far-distant region of the sky,
Hushed in deep silence, sleep you when 'tis calm?

Every object is most beautiful in motion:
a ship under sail
trees gently agitated with the wind,
a fine woman dancing.

We were made for action.
I am quite out of conceit with calms.
It is not in the still calm of life,
or the repose of a pacific station,
that great characters are formed.

War, tyranny, and desolation are the scourges of the Almighty.
Yet it is your lot to be an eyewitness of these calamities
in your own native land.

Do justly.
Love mercy.
Walk humbly.
This is enough for you to know and to do.
The world is a better one than you deserve;
strive to make yourself more worthy of it.

Beneath life's pressure, yet bear up a while.
The storms of wintry time will quickly pass,
And one unbounded Spring encircle all.

Artwork by Cate Marcelli.

Performances

• 11 May, 2025: Quincy Choral Society at St. Mary Of The Hills Church, Milton, MA