Triptych: Pandemic

Triptych: Pandemic was written, composed and recorded in 2020-21 as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the events that occurred within its bounds. This work consists of three vocal-electronic works that offer hope and dismay in equal measure, exploring the initial shutdown in March 2020, the long periods of waiting for an end to the situation, and in the case of Hanging Tree, the events of January 6th, 2021.

The Great Quiet

Look alive for me.
Look alive for me, tonight;
everything that you knew to be true
was a lie.

Say a word for me.
I'll say a word for you, tonight;
that the sound of a voice might break free –
that a voice might help you sleep.

Stay away for me.
I'll stay away for you, tonight;
that my body won't cause yours to bleed –
that your breath won't make mine cease.

Stay alive for me.
Stay alive for me, tonight;
when my eye meets your eye in the end
I will touch your hand again.

Rise

They told me I could sing no more,
that I should bide my time;
hide my voice away inside,
that in time it would rise.

It would rise.

But in this hole, on these nights so low,
I wonder how it will end –
will other voices emerge again
to shake the dust from their souls?

Will they rise?

Bury my body inside this cave.
I've grown too fond of this space.
Beneath the floor, cover me in loam –
my place of blood, breath and bone.

I will rise.

Tell me I can sing no more,
I will bide my time.
Cast a voice to a light blue void
and in time it will rise.

It will rise.

Hanging Tree

Look at me now, what do you see?
Am I the Beast that makes you scream,
the ragged face that haunts your dreams,
the voice inside the hanging tree?

What have I done to earn these bands?
This plastic bent on quiet hands,
a rope to cut and still my blood,
to speed me now to dust and mud.

Oh, if only you could see your eyes,
to know what they have set inside;
the fire to take my will to breathe,
to bind me here beneath the tree.

Look at you now.
What have you become?
Were you always this way?
Were you always this way?

Yet to the East there lumbers still
that crumbling dome of stone and sill;
a trunk of burnt and broken wood
laid bare by lightning on the hill.

Oh, is that where you’d see me hang,
there, on the ground where it began?
Well as I swing, I’ll make you see
that you can’t take my voice from me:

Look up here, friend, and watch me bleed!
Am I the Beast that makes you scream,
the ragged face that haunts your dreams,
the voice inside the hanging tree?

Or am I just a mirror, friend,
a looking glass that has no end?
From this maw your rage will spend
the fear of self that dwells within.

But how can love be so construed?
By twist of word and rape of truth,
the Fox that comes at night to croon
will steal your eggs to feed his brood.

So cry out to your gods above,
that maybe they would learn to love.
That maybe they would see our pain.
That maybe they would say, “Enough.”

Look at us now.
What have we become?
Were we always this way?
Were we always this way?

Special thanks to the following singers who lent me their voices from home for the creation of Rise:

Soprano: Molly Conole, Mary Di Roberts, Jody Lee, Krystel Dib, Jennifer McCann, Angela Lin, Liz Bologna, Helen Neeves, Rachel Benoit, Heather Nelson, Jessica Stanislawczyk, Jordan Berg, Misha Williams, Julia Gallagher, Kaycee Logsdon, Megan Gardner, Megan Higle, Samantha Lax, Gina DiPalermo, Katelynn Jensen, Kristen Kozub, Angela Yiu, Jennifer Lamson, Christina Lochner, Mhairi Sharp, Michelle Handy, Megan Sherry

Alto: Dana Kephart Queiros, Abigail Treat, Vanessa Counte, Anna Daavettila, Tara Kane, Sarah Le Brocq, Ashley Wright, Christina Regan, Christy Koller, Emily Harrison, Estelle Ayomen, Esther Barrington, GlenEllen Lehmberg, Jaclyn Paige, Jennifer Taylor, Julia Janowski, Kathleen Dunn, Kristin Schenk, Wendy J Levy

Tenor: Christian Koller, Curt Rogan, Alex O’Neil, Christopher Filice, John Liepold, Ehren Brown, Joshua John, Ken Short, Spencer Ruwe, Cortlandt Matthews, David Pettyjohn, Chris Nappa, Jack A. Pott, Jacob Laitinen, Jared Anderson, Matt Koller, Matthew Coules, Zachary Beeksma, James Balmer

Bass: Lawrence J. Besch, Alex Kolster, Ross Cumming, Dermot O Connor, Ben Watson, Blair Walker, David Wible, Dylan Armstrong, Jermaine Woodard Jr., Rick Gabrillo, Sam Scheibe, Ryan John, Mark Leder, John Berry, David Benson, R. Douglas Helvering, Andrey Stolyarov, Robert Brooks, Dan Malloy, Herb Menzel Jr., Patrick Nay, Mark Hightower, William Bennett