light & dark songs
SATB a cappella with soloists | Graphite | 5' | Text by Barbara Crooker
After the Storm Passes depicts a tumultuous journey on the wind following the rain: "In this clean new light, the corn is polished, carved of jade, leaves of beryl, viridian [...] Under this great glass eye we stand, on the rim of summer, the bones of winter under our feet, washed again in this bright loud light."
SSAA a cappella | Graphite | 4' | Text by Barbara Crooker
One Blue Sky excerpts a poem by Barbara Crooker: "One blue sky, fragile as a robin's egg, covers us all. [...] Maybe the stars / spell different stories to you, to me, / but in the darkness of the night, they are light enough to see by."
SATB or SSAA a cappella | 4' | Mark Foster Series | Text: Laura Foley
Not just an exultation of happiness, Threads of Joy recognizes how we emerge from darkness and pain back into light. The music captures this duality
in ever-shifting prismatic harmonies.
SATB chorus, mezzo-soprano soloist & audience
text: Barbara Crooker | 70'
A Calendar of Light is a twenty-four movement, concert-length work. With a libretto by poet Barbara Crooker, this new piece explores how our relationship to change is mirrored in our relationship to the changing seasons. These range from small changes, like our personal triumphs and artistic failures, to the urgent and wide-ranging consequences of climate change. This piece calls for reflection and action in recurring refrains and six call-and-response movements that invite the audience to join in singing.
