Faster | 3.5'
for SATB, SSAA, or TTBB Chorus a cappella
Faster is still about feeling stuck, as if life is moving too slowly, and yearning for a change. In the end, though, the narrator realizes that instead of waiting for the right moment to make that change, they can initiate it; they're the one who decides when it's time to leave. Maybe the place they describe is metaphorical—maybe they're feeling stuck in a relationship, or a job—or maybe it's a literal location.
This piece is part of the Open/Close Consortium and can be programmed as a stand-alone work or with its companion piece Closer to Home. Both pieces are available for perusal or purchase through Graphite Marketplace. Find more ideas on how to program these works together or separately here.
FASTER
I know I should be happy with what I have,
where I am now, the slow and simple life I live.
But it feels like I'm stuck in the same place,
ready for something new,
knowing that something has to give.
What if I want to go faster? What if it's time to leave?
What if I want the unknown world to open up?
What if I'm ready now to be on my own,
ready to leave a life I've outgrown?
Now I choose to either move on,
to go as fast as I can, or be content staying here.
What if I'm tired of feeling left without a voice?
Maybe I'm ready now, ready to make my choice.
When will I know that it's time to leave?
Even if I had all the answers, what would I want them to be?
And if it's up to me to decide my own fate,
what if I don't have to wait?
And even though I'm grateful
for all that's happened here,
my path is slowly becoming clear:
if I want to go faster, if I want to leave,
the answers are already here; now I can see
that it's happening, finally.
I can choose to go,
find a way to leave, somehow.
Suddenly, the unknown world
is opening up to me now.
—Dale Trumbore
Commissioning Choruses:
Acalanes High School Choirs
Bruce Lengacher
Bethel College Concert Choir
Jeshua Franklin
Flower Mound High School Choirs
Mark Rohwer
Harmonium Choral Society
Anne Matlack
Holland Chorale
Patrick Coyle
Honors Choirs of Southeast Minnesota
Rick Kvam
Marriotts Ridge High School Choirs
Scott AuCoin
Sherwood High School Choirs
Michael Maddox
Southwest Christian High School Choirs
Curtis Kettler
University of Southern California Choirs
Jo-Michael Scheibe
