$2.00
Instrumentation: SATB Choir & Solo Cello
Duration: 3:30
From Songs of Hope in Strange Times (A Choral Song Cycle)
I. In Times of Descent (in progress)
II. In Times of Hibernation
III. In Times of Stasis
IV. In Times of Reemergence (SEEKING COMMISSIONER & PREMIERE ENSEMBLE – contact for details)
V. In Times of Rising (to be premiered by Loyola Marymount University in Spring, 2023)
Commissioned by: Juan Carlos Acosta & SACRA/PROFANA (2020), Premiered Virtually on October 30, 2020
The music and lyrics of Songs of Hope in Strange Times: In Times of Hibernation was written during the COVID-19 global pandemic of 2020 and was commissioned by SACRA/PROFANA Choir. The overall song cycle is five movements long, with each movement reflecting on how to find hope and meaning during strange and unknown times of life. After the first scary and frenetic days in March, 2020 when the severity of COVID-19 started to become apparent in the USA, the world then seemed to enter a deeper state of hibernating and waiting, but it was not always clear exactly what was being waited for. In this second movement, In Times of Hibernation, the text asks whether we can find meaning in times of deep hibernation and seemingly-endless waiting. The answer may be that we have to simply wait and hold our breath along with time as the events unfold. It may be that the deepest meaning may be found during the quietest of times.
Commissioned & Remotely Recorded by: SACRA/PROFANA
Conductor: Juan Carlos Acosta
Audio & Video Editing by Rumley Music & Audio Production
Half the world in slumber
Half know neither night nor day
The Ticking of the clock stopped
The rustle of pages silent.
Is it here, in this state of waiting,
We hold our breath with time?
