SSA a cappella, 2'45" score sample
Composed for Accord Treble Choir, Liz Geisewite, director
Premiered on June 3 and 9, 2018 in New York City (see video below)
I met Liz Geisewite at the Choral Chameleon Institute in the summer of 2017. Liz was a soprano in the amazing choir, and I was one of the participant composers. Afterward, Liz was kind enough to invite me to write a piece for her ensemble, Accord Treble Choir. I'd been eager to write for women's choir, and pounced on the opportunity for write for a really good one.
I chose this poem by Walt Whitman to fit the theme of Accord's June 2018 concert program, "On Wings." The piece squeezes plenty of excitement into its short duration, with frequently shifting tempos, meters, and keys; sliding pitches, active counterpoint, and plenty of word painting— including a soaring final fugato that I have come to think of as my "superhero fugue."
Poem by Walt Whitman (1890 or 1891)
I have not so much emulated the birds that musically sing,
I have abandon’d myself to flights, broad circles.
The hawk, the seagull, have far more possess’d me than the canary or
mocking-bird.
I have not felt to warble and trill, however sweetly,
I have felt to soar in freedom and in the fullness of power, joy, volition.
Composed for Accord Treble Choir, Liz Geisewite, director
Premiered on June 3 and 9, 2018 in New York City (see video below)
I met Liz Geisewite at the Choral Chameleon Institute in the summer of 2017. Liz was a soprano in the amazing choir, and I was one of the participant composers. Afterward, Liz was kind enough to invite me to write a piece for her ensemble, Accord Treble Choir. I'd been eager to write for women's choir, and pounced on the opportunity for write for a really good one.
I chose this poem by Walt Whitman to fit the theme of Accord's June 2018 concert program, "On Wings." The piece squeezes plenty of excitement into its short duration, with frequently shifting tempos, meters, and keys; sliding pitches, active counterpoint, and plenty of word painting— including a soaring final fugato that I have come to think of as my "superhero fugue."
Poem by Walt Whitman (1890 or 1891)
I have not so much emulated the birds that musically sing,
I have abandon’d myself to flights, broad circles.
The hawk, the seagull, have far more possess’d me than the canary or
mocking-bird.
I have not felt to warble and trill, however sweetly,
I have felt to soar in freedom and in the fullness of power, joy, volition.