jasonf, I appreciate your comments about "Little Bird". Thanks for the discussion, but I still don't think the song is particularly good compared to the rest of the score, which is just indescribably powerful. In context, it seems absurd to me that the men would be singing at all, and taken out of contest, I think the song is the weak spot in the score. I'm afraid my opinion is also colored by having to sing this song many years ago in a choral setting,(and completely out of context) and hating it then. I just don't think it's a great song. I found similar situations handled far better in West Side Story or Shenandoah, for instance.
"And the postman sighed as he scratched his head, you really rather thought she ought to be dead..."