Our Time Has Come

Our Time Has Come was commissioned by the International Grammar School Sydney, under the direction of Alison Housley to honour the 30th Anniversary in 2014. It was composed by Bonnie Nilsson and Paul and is part of a three part song cycle, “Love for the Turning World”.

After getting to know the community Paul was very touched by the story of former student Valerio DeSimoni.

Valerio (pictured above, centre) was a young Italo Australian man of 24 whose life ended tragically in a road accident in Malawi while attempting with two friends to break the world record of the longest journey on Quad Bikes. At the same time Valerio and his friends were raising funds for OXFAM Australia, a non-profit organisation, to fight poverty and support the ‘Southern Africa Livelihood Program’. During their trip from Istanbul to Sydney through 34 countries and 3 continents Valerio and his friends were also trying to spread the environmental message: Saving Energy/Saving the Planet.

Valerio had been writing a journal, now published as ‘Real Love for the Turning World’. After reading this insightful work, Paul felt that Valerio’s passion for this world, and the people in it, was a true example of how a community can work well. This was the fundamental aim of International Grammar. After receiving permission from Valerio’s family, Paul would pen three works with his wife Bonnie Nilsson. 

For more about Valerio and the following foundation please see Valerio De Simoni

Audio sample courtesy of IGS and recorded by Ross A’Hern

Themes

Sing a Finale Sing a global story Sing a message
Duration 4:10
Key Eb Major modulating to F Major
Range Standard SAB - High F for Sopranos
More info Also available with strings, woodwind & percussion. Contact Paul for parts & scores. Well suited to massed choir for finale
Price AU$3.00 per copy

Lyrics

O U R   T I M E   H A S   C O M E

By Paul Jarman & Bonnie Nilsson

Stepping up stepping out, finding your path to inspiration
Knowing how knowing when you’ve arrived at your destination
We all go searching for the answers to what we want we want to know
But how do you know when you really know?

Come along on this ride, here we learn with one another
Standing tall, standing strong, our differences bring us together
Embrace this world as one, all these languages we’ve sung
It’s here we’ll learn to live as we grow

Every day here it seems, you give with no sense of obligation
You inspire, you believe in every child’s education
We know that it’s our time and with our teachers we will shine  
That’s when you know everything is fine

And when it’s time, when we’ve grown
When we’ve learnt to learn on our own
Here we’ll stand all as one
That’s when we’ll know who we’ve become
And we’ll know our time has come

Climbing stairs all the time, rising beyond our expectation
In these grounds we all feel no limit to our imagination
It’s a feeling we all share, as every day we all prepare
To find another path to take us there

© Nilsson/Jarman 2014