Messengers

$40.00 | Listen | Peruse |

Instrumentation:

  • SATB choir w/ divisi and solo voices (minimum 24 singers)

  • Piano

  • Cello (optional)

  • Percussion Ensemble (4 players: vibraphone, marimba, crotales/glockenspiel, suspended cymbals/gong)

I returned to writing poetry in the fall of 2021 after a long hiatus, and Messengers was one of the first poems I finished. This is the first set of my own poetry that I have set to music.

Messengers is inspired by music like Carl Sagan's Cosmos, the theme from The X-Files, and Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians. Divided into three short movements, this work explores our eternal human curiosities about who else we share this universe with, and if we have anything in common with them. The "messages" we receive from the light of distant stars and planets gives us ideas of who might be out there, but dawn has yet to reveal her deepest secrets to us. The timeline of the piece is set over the course of a clear, starry night, with glistening ostinati in contrast against a dark, ominous canvas. As the choral ensemble reflects on the human potential of our faraway neighbors, the music progresses toward sunrise, and all of the stars, planets and satellites in the night sky gradually vanish into the “secrecy of daylight.”

**The perusal score currently available is a piano reduction.

This work is dedicated to my dad, whose love and admiration for astronomy is unsurpassed by anyone I know.

This work will premiere in November 2024 at the Northern Illinois University New Music Festival, under the direction of Dr. Gregory Beyer.