night songs
SSA or SATB chorus with string quartet and flute
text: Diane Thiel | 18'
The two poems of Charting the World, both written by contemporary poet Diane Thiel, share a common theme: the wonder of watching a child acquire a new language. In “The First Sea,” language opens new worlds to children, unfolding fears and adventures in the world of dreams. In “Counting Two,” it’s an adult perspective that shifts as a child learns to count to two.
SATB or SSAA & Piano | 5' | Graphite | Text: Abby N. Lewis
In Vital Dance, a night of insomnia gives way to a meditation on life and death. This piece alternates between a precise, almost metronomic motive and freer, lulling arpeggios—a hazy dream-state in which we’re counting our minutes or suspended in a timeless dance.
SATB or SSAA a cappella | 5' | Graphite | Text: Laura Foley
As Laura Foley's poem “Like Something Newly Freed” progresses, the narrator shift from observing blackbirds at sunset to imagining herself among them, describing that flight in the first person: "As night begins, / you raise black wings / like leaves, like the lightness of a song." This setting of Foley's text attempts to capture the desire for freedom and flight in our own lives.
SSA, Violin & Piano | 5' | Boosey & Hawkes | Text: Annie Finch
Frozen In evokes the chilly stillness of a placid winter evening walk
and sets an evocative text by poet Annie Finch.
