My Florida Home
by Christopher Marshall

     As a fairly new resident of Orlando I felt most honoured and surprised to have had my song chosen as one of three finalists in the FMEA quest to find a new state song for Florida. This selection was made from a total of 243 entries and I was the only finalist from Central Florida.

     The new Florida state song was chosen by an online vote and the result announced on January 11, 2008. Here is the article in the Orlando Sentinel announcing the result.

     I wrote My Florida Home after returning from a difficult overseas trip in late August. Looking down from the aeroplane on the city of Orlando on a beautiful fall evening, I was struck by the beauty of the place and filled with the strongest feeling that this was now my home.

     Please download a recording and a score. What you have here is like a rough sketch, or blueprint for a possible state song. The new state song would have to be adaptable enough to sound effective in performance by professionals in all music genres as well as by elementary school students.

     To that end I was working on several arrangements of My Florida Home for choir with orchestra, children's choir, solo voice, marching bands (in 4/4 of course!) and other combinations. In the event that my song had been successful I wanted it known and enjoyed by as many people in as many situations as possible. If you wanted to try and envisage how it could have been transformed in an classical orchestral setting, listen to the song-like theme towards the end of Hikurangi Sunrise.

     I wrote My Florida Home in two days and spent a few weeks fine-tuning the lyrics with the help of Orlando conductor, Gregory Ruffer. It is his choir The Orlando Chorale in the beautiful performance on the recording (with soloist Gregory Le Fils and pianist Absalon Figueroa) along with the visiting Lake Brantley High School Patriot Singers. I am so grateful to these choirs for their work promoting the song during the competition. And especially to Greg Ruffer for his advice and generosity, not only relating to this project but from the moment I arrived in Orlando.

    I am not sure of what I will do with My Florida Home. Of course I would be delighted if choirs wanted to continue singing it though I think that unlikely. I certainly enjoyed my foray into songwriting and have learned a lot from it.

     Currently the Florida state song is Old Folks At Home by Stephen Foster. While it has a pleasant and memorable melody and is known worldwide it is utterly inappropriate as an official song for any state. Yet unofficial polls in Florida consistently show at least 60 percent support for it keeping its status. Will Florida, Where The Sawgrass Meets The Sky by Jan Hinton will be able to win Floridians over? I wish Jan and the FMEA - and the state representatives who supported this initiative all the very best in their efforts.

     Here are some additional links to files related to My Florida Home. There's Gabrielle Finley's excellent article in the Orlando Sentinel announcing my success in making the finals and two audio clips from the WMFE programme Arts Connection, one from before the the announcement and one on that day. I am grateful to Becky Morgan of WMFE FM Radio for permission to use these. Here is an informative article in The Los Angeles Times, and another in El Sentinel, Orlando's foremost Spanish language newspaper.

     I still welcome your comments and suggestions on my song. Please don't hesitate to contact me.

Sincere thanks for visiting,      
Christopher