Joshua Fishbein

All Her Paths Are Peace

An AGO award winner, this setting of Proverbs 3:13-18, for advanced choir and organ, uses creative registrations for colorful text-painting. A challenging, yet rewarding piece for the musicians.


Program Notes
Commissioned by the American Guild of Organists for the 2026 AGO/ECS Publishing Award in Choral Composition, All Her Paths Are Peace sets the New International Version of Proverbs 3:13-18, which assigns female pronouns in reference to "wisdom" and "understanding." The importance of these two nouns in my piece is highlighted by their prominent placement in the destinations of musical phrases. I am very familiar with the last two verses of this Proverbs excerpt because of their regularly recurrence in Jewish Liturgy. Verses 18 and 17 (in that order) are sung on Shabbat as part of the "Etz Chayim" (Tree of Life) prayer when the Torah is returned to the ark. Setting these verses was especially meaningful to me because of their connection to my Judaism. In fact, the traditional Ashkenazic melody for this part of the Liturgy is subtly quoted with some alterations, while the choir boldly sings "Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace" – also an especially important phrase considering today’s volatile international politics. "Peace" is sung strongly unaccompanied, before the organ joins to help dramatize this climactic moment. Finally, the word "blessed" (both the first and last in the text) elides musical content from the beginning and end to help tie the work together. I was influenced by the choral and organ music I have loved performing in my work as a synagogue and church musician, by Jewish composers such as Leonard Bernstein, Gerald Finzi, and Kurt Weill, and non-Jewish composers such as Edward Bairstow, Benjamin Britten, and Herbert Howells.