How Can I Keep from Singing?

This setting of the classic folksong questions music’s role within a struggling society. “How Can I Keep from Singing” has taken myriad forms since the original Christian hymn. Sacred themes express steadfast faith in the face of adversity, positioning music as a tool for praise and thanksgiving. Overtime, the song entered and gained popularity in secular folk tradition. In updated lyrics attributed to Doris Plenn, faith is adapted to resilience, inspiring solidarity in response to 1950s McCarthyism.

Having been raised in the Catholic Church, I was deeply moved when discovering Plenn’s lyrics. The familiar song felt more sacred than ever, but it wasn’t God’s power I felt or even the music’s; it was the people’s. While art and attractiveness often intersect, I believe music need not be pleasurable to resonate strongly. “How Can I Keep from Singing” models empowerment in the face of oppression, and in this arrangement, I aim to sonically represent such beautiful passion alongside decidedly ugly forces which attempt – and ultimately fail to – suppress it

Performed and recorded on December 3rd, 2025, in Ganz Hall (Chicago College of performing Arts).