Chorale singing Petaluma's praises

Petaluma has a river and an adobe. Now, to mark the city's 150th anniversary, it has a song.

To be sure, the piece commissioned by a local chorale group is not the first to wax musical on the virtues of the one-time chicken capital and transportation hub. And it may not be the last.

But it could well be the longest and most complex, a modern work of 18 pages with enough close harmonies and compound meters to challenge any ensemble of singers.

"It's not something people are going to go around humming, I can tell you that," said Ron Walters, a member of the Petaluma Chorale, which had the piece written for the sesquicentennial. "It may be absolutely stunning when we get it down, though."

The song, titled "Petaluma, Who Calls You Home?" was composed by Sonoma State University music professor Brian Wilson. Petaluma poet and Santa Rosa Junior College English instructor Terry Ehret wrote the lyrics.

But the city has not yet considered it as an official song.

Ehret said her words focus on the rolling Petaluma landscape and the area's inhabitants, starting with American Indians and including today's homeless people. She looked at a collection of old photographs and wrote with folk singer Woody Guthrie in mind.

"The hills are the hills, the river is the river, regardless of who lives on its banks or hillsides," Ehret said. "I was trying to give it a timeless quality."

At the beginning of the year, she handed off her work to Wilson, who completed the composition about a month later.

The chorus has been practicing ever since.

Laila Schoenlein, chorus director, said the song will be performed for the first time in public on May 9 at 7:30 p.m. at the Petaluma Community Center. A second performance is scheduled for May 13 at Petaluma Valley Baptist Church.

"It is a challenging piece," Schoenlein said. "It's written in a modern style with compound meters, and it's sort of in a minor key."

Petaluma, founded in 1858, has several symbols, including a city seal and a flower, the lavatera, said historian Katherine Rinehart.

But it doesn't appear to have an official song, although at least one composition is known to exist.

"Petaluma" by T. Howard Hanson, written in the early 1900s, extols life on the farm and a country where "there's many a pretty lass," in addition to fine poultry, gas and oil.

The new song relies heavily on repetition. The composer took liberties with the lyrics on at least one part. "From the flat-back hills where the west wind's riding" became "the west wind's riding from flat black hills."

"That was fine with me," Ehret said. "I completely understood that was our project from the get-go. I'm enormously honored to have my words set to music."

Whether the song will someday become the "official" city song is uncertain. The city said it could not afford to pay for the commissioning, which was $900, Schoenlein said.

She said she hopes to recoup some of the money through donations.

"It's not 'I left My Heart in San Francisco,' " Schoenlein said. "But I'm optimistic it will be impressive and people will like it."

You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 762-7297 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com.