About the piece

Winner of San Francisco Choral Artists “New Voices” Competition 2012

“How quickly the season of apricots is over-
a single night’s wind is enough.
I kneel on the ground, lifting one, then the next.
Eating those I can, before the bruises appear.”

A setting of Jane Hirshfield’s poem “Speed and Perfection” from her collection “Given Sugar, Given Salt. The music imitates the rushing of the night wind, and the flurry of leaves, while the harmonies evoke the sweetness of fruit. I dedicate my setting to my mother, with whom I have many happy memories eating, procuring, and protecting apricots.

Listen

Get the Sheet Music

This piece is available to purchase as a digital PDF direct from the composer. Files are delivered instantly via email.

Speed and Perfection SATBB

$2.00
1 license per ensemble member. 4 license minimum.
Add to Cart

Instrumentation

SATBB

Duration

1 minute 30 seconds

year written

SATBB (2010)

Sheet Music Format

Digital PDF, 8.5 x 11"

More Works for Choral, SATBB

  • Choral

    Personent Hodie

    SATB chorus with organ and optional handbells

    5 minutes 30 seconds

    Combining medieval aesthetics with modern harmonic sensibilities and growing from chant to polyphonic ecstasy, this arrangement is a grand processional for the Christmas season.

  • Choral

    the truth you cannot see

    SATB chorus

    3 minutes

    The text for  the truth you cannot see is taken from the end of Alfred Bester's novel The Demolished Man. It offers a measure of hope, and a plea for patience and understanding. The complex harmonies serve to underscore how difficult these things are to achieve.