Choir

What is G-d?

Commissioned by Quorum Boston

For SATB choir

December 10 and 13, 2018 at the Josephine A. Fiorentino Community Center in Allston, MA and the First Church in Cambridge, MA.

Duration 3:30

This work questions G-d’s being, identity, and gender. Why is it that our most common image of G-d is an old white man? Maybe G-d’s a young person? Maybe G-d’s a person of color? Maybe G-d’s female or non-binary? Or maybe G-d isn’t a person at all? To the Hebrew speakers who first wrote the old testament, G-d was no more than a masculine noun. Doesn’t mean G-d’s a person. In fact, does the bible even call G-d a person?

Music, When Soft Voices Die

Text by Percy Bysshe Shelley

For SATB choir

Premiered June 28, 2011 at the Walden School Composers Forum, Dublin NH, by the Walden School Chorus conducted by Leo Wanenchak.

Duration: 3:00

Music When Soft Voices Die represents how one hears a voice calling. The closer they get to the voice that is calling, the louder it becomes, and the further away, the softer it becomes. The entire piece is built around one large crescendo and decrescendo. It alternates between two sections. One of the sections is a series of contrapuntal melismas on an “Ah” vowel. The dynamics change dramatically over expressive lines in this section. The other section is the choir singing on text. They sing a bit softer and in more of a chordal fashion. The form of this piece is put together like this: Vocalise, Text, Vocalise, Text, Vocalise