I.

MSC Presents:
I.
for SATB a cappella
Music by: Michael Nunes
Text by: Erica Kath

Premiered by Modern Sound Collective in 2019.

VIEW PERUSAL SCORE:

MSC0018 – I. – SCORE PERUSAL PDF

PROGRAM NOTE:

I. (pronounced “eye”) is a short choral setting of an impressionistic poem by Erica Kath: a remarkable writer and one of my closest friends. In the poem, she describes the lunar cycle—likening it to a blinking eye with darkened eyelids. My setting imitates and emphasizes the elegant structure of the text, amplifying her evocative language with rich, dense chords.

ORIGINAL TEXT:

I.

by Erica Kath

the moon: a great eye
peers into the world
through ebony curtains.

slowly, it blinks
—it eclipses—
Time weighs,
heavy.

darkened eyelids drag downwards,
—everything in phases—
until there is stillness.

until there is stillness.

several months, and the eye
blinks once:
shutting, stillness
lifting, light

(through ebony curtains)
shutting—lifting—shutting—lifting:
watching.

(Reproduced with permission from the author.)