Thread (2019)

for SSAA choir, bass clarinet, 4-player vibraphone

Premiered by St. Olaf musicians, April 5, 2019

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Trace the silence
In the air
The line tossed
Into the sea of noise
Feel it in the space
Between your running fingers

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Take it, weave it
Into your walk,
Your clothes and your words
Direct it as much
As it directs you

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Feel the way it flows
Away from all the edges,
The jagged borders,
And through the soft parts
Of this rough world

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It is nothing
But another simple absence
A reduction of that
Which totals us
To follow it is to see
What shape you take
When you force less
Into the world 

 

--Henry H. Benjamin

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I was drawn to this poem because of the musical imagery it provides: the thought of silence weaving and flowing through every moment of life, a resting place in the chaos we so often face in our lives. For me, music - created out of this silence, this moment of calm - provides the same comfort from the roughness of the world.

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Contact Erika for score inquiries.