ME = Moderately Easy
M = Medium
MD = Moderately Difficult
D = Difficult
I Write This Poem Out Of Darkness (George Ella Lyon)
SSA chorus, flute, violin, piano - SEA-024-00 - $3.00/copySSA trio (one singer per part), flute, violin, piano - SEA-024-01 - $3.00/copy
9 minutes - MD Commissioned by Women's Works
George Ella Lyon's poem, "Growing Light," opens with the poet reaching out to each imagined reader, even as she writes in solitude and darkness. This sense of aloneness is woven deeply into the music itself, as stark solos convey devastating isolation, canonic passages suggest a plethora of individual voices, and strong unison statements affirm the visceral power of art to transcend time and space. All three instrumentalists are prominent players in the drama of this piece, from the quiet passion of the violinist's first note to the final high, ethereal echos.
I Write This Poem Out of Darkness - score
I Write This Poem Out Of Darkness - Recording
Women's Work: Kristin Park, Carol Buckley and Jayne Demakos, singers ~ Ruth Roland, violin ~ Jennie Abrahamson, flute ~ Elizabeth Alexander, piano
Women's Work: Kristin Park, Carol Buckley and Jayne Demakos, singers ~ Ruth Roland, violin ~ Jennie Abrahamson, flute ~ Elizabeth Alexander, piano
Growing Light
I write this poem
out of darkness
to you
who are also in darkness
because our lives demand it.
This poem is a hand on your shoulder
a bone touch to go with you
through the hard birth of vision.
In other words, love
shapes this poem
is the fist that holds the chisel,
muscle that drags marble
and burns with the weight
of believing a face
lives in the stone
a breathing word in the body.
I tell you
though the darkness
has been ours
words will give us
give our eyes, opened in promise
a growing light.
Copyright 1994 by George Ella Lyon.
Reprinted by permission of the author.
I write this poem
out of darkness
to you
who are also in darkness
because our lives demand it.
This poem is a hand on your shoulder
a bone touch to go with you
through the hard birth of vision.
In other words, love
shapes this poem
is the fist that holds the chisel,
muscle that drags marble
and burns with the weight
of believing a face
lives in the stone
a breathing word in the body.
I tell you
though the darkness
has been ours
words will give us
give our eyes, opened in promise
a growing light.
Copyright 1994 by George Ella Lyon.
Reprinted by permission of the author.
View and play the score
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