Bright Star, or The Transept of Venus: June 5, 2012 (2013)
Text by Shannon Berry
for SSAATTBB chorus and vibraphone.
Duration: 6:00
I wanted to write another choral piece, so I asked my good friend and frequent collaborator for a poem. She sent me this poem, and I fell in love with its blend of the vastness of outer space and the intimacy of personal space, science and love. While working on this piece with Dr. Larry Moss, he suggested that a little bit of something was missing. I came up with the idea of including a vibraphone part to help the chorus with some of the trickier harmonies, to add resonance, and to add a "science-y" feel. From there, my aim was to accurately represent Shannon's ideas of the universal and the intimate. Choral aleatory adds to the sense of space, while tiny solos interjected brings to mind how small each individual voice is compared to the whole. When, in the poem, we come to the speaker's kitchen table, the harmony is drastically simplified before growing into the sound from the beginning of the piece.
Duration: 6:00
I wanted to write another choral piece, so I asked my good friend and frequent collaborator for a poem. She sent me this poem, and I fell in love with its blend of the vastness of outer space and the intimacy of personal space, science and love. While working on this piece with Dr. Larry Moss, he suggested that a little bit of something was missing. I came up with the idea of including a vibraphone part to help the chorus with some of the trickier harmonies, to add resonance, and to add a "science-y" feel. From there, my aim was to accurately represent Shannon's ideas of the universal and the intimate. Choral aleatory adds to the sense of space, while tiny solos interjected brings to mind how small each individual voice is compared to the whole. When, in the poem, we come to the speaker's kitchen table, the harmony is drastically simplified before growing into the sound from the beginning of the piece.