A Free Song (Secular Cantata No. 2) for full chorus of Mixed Voices with accompaniment of Orchestra or two Pianos. Music by William Schuman. Text adapted from poems by Walt Whitman. Vocal score. Suitable for Grades 6-8.Schuman won the inaugural Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1943 for A Free Song. It contains granite-like blocks of dissonant harmony and sharp-edged counterpoint and is modelled on Beethoven’s Fifth. Written during World War II it combines lines from 'Long Too Long America' and 'Song of the Banner at Daybreak ' poems which have elements of the same patrioticfervor.
