Carrying Our Words
SSA(T) modular choir
(2019)

Text: Ofelia Zepeda (b. 1952)
Language: English
Duration: 5 minutes

Premiered November 2019
Helsinki Finland

Audio excerpt forthcoming.

Composer’s Note

This piece was composed while taking part in a residency at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, NM. During this time I was fortunate to experience many things that were out of my ordinary living and composing environment; in choosing this text and writing this piece, I wanted to create something with words that spoke of the respect and reverence for the power of nature that so saturated my time in the American Southwest. Further, I wanted to welcome the singers into this space of appreciation and recognition in song—to hear young musicians sing of the power not only of nature (in this case the ocean) but also of their own voices, is crucial to my own intentions and voice as a composer.

“Carrying Our Words” offered me what I was hoping to pass on directly in a poem. Dr. Ofelia Zepeda is a member of the O’odham nation, a poet, and linguist. Her poetry often exists in the O’odham language and also in English, where she makes certain choices in translation to shape the English language to fit the intricacies of her native vocabulary. Elements of repetition and grammar in the text are characteristic of traditional O’odham songs and poems; they were used to inspire the musical choices in my setting. Dr. Zepeda’s text is set with her permission.

Text

We travel carrying our words.
We arrive at the ocean.
With our words we are able to speak
of the sounds of thunderous waves.
We speak of how majestic it is,
of the ocean power that gifts us songs.
We sing of our respect
and call it our relative.

Performance Note

This piece is designed to be somewhat flexible and free in certain aspects of the performance. S1 must always be present, but choirs can perform the piece with any other combination of parts. Ideally, the work is most complete with all four parts, but it is created to have traction even if S2 is missing, or A, or B (or any combination). Conductors may also make the decision to include parts of individual lines where they deem appropriate based on the skills of their choir. For example, a choir could sing predominantly in two parts (S1+S2) until the pickup to m. 43 where a third part could be added up to m. 51 or m. 60.

For the two canons (mm. 1-8 and mm. 51-59), the melody can repeated and voices can be added in at the discretion of the conductor based on the choir’s abilities and programming considerations. The original version of the piece makes the following choices and is the preference of the composer barring any additional considerations:
mm. 1-8: 1st time unison, 2nd time S1+S2, 3rd time S1+S2+B (if applicable), move to m. 9 to add A

mm. 51-59: as written with no repeats; S1/S2 sing in unison with A, and in m. 59, B enters to move into m. 60.