When We’re Gone 10,000 Years from Ocean Poems sets the beautiful poem of the same name by Jonathan Talberg, Director of Choral, Vocal, & Opera Studies at California State University, Long Beach. This piece uses hocket-like interplay between the vocal parts and metric displacement to create rhythmic propulsion. There is a limited set of rhythmic motifs used throughout the piece, including eighth note and quarter note trios, triplets, and metric displacement. The technique of text painting is used for certain words to bring the text to life, such as soaring, howling, and tumbling.
This piece may be performed as a stand-alone piece or paired with I’m Still Here as the complete Ocean Poems suite. This piece would be suitable for advanced high school, collegiate, and professional choirs.
When we’re gone 10,000 years and waves still break
Gloriously on this radiant sand,
Gulls soaring, winds howling, mist spraying o’er the port,
Only then will we know if our lives rang true,
When you and I tumbled together amidst all of this blue.