program note

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Requiescat is a movement from secular requiem How to Go On. Composed for the versatile singers of Choral Arts Initiative, How to Go On confronts themes of grief and mortality, ultimately finding beauty and release in the embrace of everyday life.

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Requiescat may be performed as a stand-alone piece or alongside other movements of How to Go On. Purchase this piece for performance through Graphite Marketplace. 

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text

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REQUIESCAT

for Judy

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Let us go, let go with the few roots

you have left clinging to this earth,

pull free, like the clean snap of a carrot

or radish, let us go, shake off this dirt,

let go, let go of your family, their story

hasn't been told, yours is already written,

let go of the world, its sweetness and sorrow,

let go of your friends, we will cry, yes,

but we will not forget you, let go,

let go your fierce will and stubbornness,

it served you well, now let it go,

your courage will remain, let your daughters

become women, your husband lie in his bed of pain,

your long journey is over, theirs is beginning,

let us go, become spirit and light, spring rain,

fly away from this prison of bone, let go,

wait for us, we'll talk again later,

I am here by the phone, waiting for the call,

for this long suffering to be over,

let it go, your work is done,

soon we will bring you to the river,

bring your ashes to the current, let them flow free,

earth, fire, cinders, rain, wait for us

on the other side of the river, let us go.

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—Barbara Crooker