Song: Set Us Free

Music by: Elise Witt

Notes: Elise is an inventive songleader and huge heart in Georgia, USA, whom I met online during the pandemic doing vocal improv with our shared teacher, Rhiannon... but I had been in contact with her before then because I wanted to sing a song of hers with my community chorus. Here, she has set words from the Rev. Timothy McDonald, calling us to the kind of integrity that gives freedom. I teach the song a capella, so you can sing with just my voice -- and then do it with piano at the end, so you can experience it that way -- and then if you follow the shownote links, you can sing it in Spanish and English with Elise, Judith & Lisset Rodés -- Lisset wrote the Spanish words... and it's a little slower, a little more legato than I sang it. I love it when there's a chance to compare different versions of the same song!

Songwriter Info: Elise’s concerts of Global, Local & Homemade Songs™ and her Impromptu Glorious Chorus™ workshops create and connect singing communities around the world. Born in Switzerland, raised in NC, and living in Atlanta since 1977, Elise speaks 5 languages fluently and sings in at least a dozen more. The Elise Witt Choral Series features choral arrangements of her original compositions and she recently published All Singing, a songbook with 58 original songs including music notation, lyrics and chords, stories and photos.

A founding member of Atlanta’s Theatrical Outfit, Elise spent many years as a Resident Artist, visiting communities around the state of Georgia and the Southeast, teaching global music and writing local songs with students of all ages.

From 2009 until 2024 Elise served as Director of Music Programs at the Global Village Project, a non-profit, special purpose middle school for teenage refugee girls in Decatur Georgia, for which she published Imagine A Circle: The Global Village Songbook, Using Singing and Songwriting to teach English for Multi-lingual learners.

Elise currently gathers singers of all persuasions in joyous circles, and continues her global touring.

Sharing Info: Elise says: "I always love to share songs in oral (by ear) tradition and I'd love to hear from you how and with whom you share the song...

Song Learning Time Stamps:

Start time of teaching: 00:02:49

Start time of reprise: 00:15:29

Links:

Website: www.EliseWitt.com 

A glimpse of what I do: 

All Singing: The Elise Witt Songbook: 

“Jenny Jenkins” global community music/art video created for DAS Year 1:

“Ready or Not” global community music/art video created for DAS Year 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNsUsSobImw&t=11s 

Imagine A Circle: The Global Village Project Songbook

Elise's Bandcamp: https://www.BandCamp.com/EliseWitt 

Choral arrangements by Elise: https://elisewitt.com/web/ewcs-choral-music/ 

Choral arrangements for Set Us Free in particular: https://elisewitt.com/web/product/set-us-free/ 

Spanish and English version of Set Us Free in concert: https://youtu.be/L5IjAhJZyOo?si=5WIleerpseLX_rxo 

Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, major, many verses

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