Middletown L.M.D.

This tune is dedicated to the memory of my cousin Wendy Karlsberg Meltzer, who died in the spring of 2008. The tune is named for Middletown, CT, where Wendy lived, and where I went to college and first encountered Sacred Harp singing in a singing school taught by Neely Bruce. I wrote this song immediately after I learned that my cousin Wendy had died. I wrote it to the words of the first and fourth verses of Watts' "Broad is the road that leads to death," but rewrote the last couplet of the fourth verse myself to reflect my feelings at the time of Wendy's death.

Middletown has been sung at new composition singings at the 2008 Chattahoochee Convention, New York City Singing, Berkshire Foothills Singing, and the 2009 Western Massachusetts Convention.

Broad is the road that leads to death
And thousands walk together there
But wisdom shows the narrow path
With here and there a traveler.
Lord let not all my hopes be vain
Create my heart entirely new
Let me march on to view that land
Which those who learn to love thee view.