The Vigil

For Lehigh University, Dello Joio wrote The Vigil for chorus with brass and percussion. The 1993 premiere by the University's Choral Arts and its Very Modern Ensemble, conducted by Paul Salerni, moved critic Philip Metzger to write: "Set to a text of Walt Whitman, which clearly reflected the experience of the Civil War, the words were at once stark, passionate, and yet surprisingly devoid of sentimentality. They demanded music to match, and Dello Joio responded in impressive fashion. Setting the scene with a penetrating instrumental introduction, the vocal music picked up the thread perfectly, and found every nuance of the text." The text is by the composer, "inspired by aWalt Whitman poem."