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You have selected: An Idle Tale from the Ron Klusmeier Anthology. Subscribers may download arrangements using the links in the right hand column.

On this page you may view a sample image of the words and melody, and listen to an audio sample. Lyrics and composer comments are below.

Click the arrow above to listen to a sample of this selection while following the melody line below. The audio sample is one verse played on piano by Ron Klusmeier.

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Lyrics:

These women tell an idle tale
that we just can’t believe.
The message that they bring to us
is one we can’t receive.
They say that Jesus isn’t dead
but lives and sends us word
that we should welcome this new day
remembering all we’ve heard.

The dead don’t rise to live again,
to walk and talk and sing—
when Jesus died upon the cross,
that ended everything.
If God had word to speak to us,
would women gospel bring?
Can winter of the soul erupt
and blossom into spring?

The tale they tell seems strangely right.
It echoes things we’ve heard.
But how can we know false from true?
How shall we know God’s word?

Composer comments

A selection from “Stay With Us”, a cantata for the Easter Season. Within the context of the cantata (“the women… returning from the tomb, told all this to the eleven and all the rest.”), this piece is sung by male choir voices which emphasizes some of the ‘tongue-in-cheek’ aspect of the text. From the narration: ”...Surely, if God did have word to bring to them, it couldn’t come from women!”