To Soar in Freedom and in Fullness of Power

Women's chorus (SSA) a cappella, 2'45". Squeezing plenty of ka-pow! into its relatively short duration, this Walt Whitman setting features quick dynamic shifts, sliding pitches, and dramatic word painting— including a soaring final fugato that I have come to think of as my "superhero fugue."
Commissioned by Accord Treble Choir, Liz Geisewite, director. World Premiere: June 3 and 9, 2018, NYC

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." 

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.