Composer’s Note

Whenever I am able, I write as specifically as I can for the commissioning ensemble as a way of including them in the foundation of the work. In the scope of this project, I was able to sit down with Dr. Daley and members of Voices of Spirit to get to know the group and their connections to making music. I asked them about the repertoire they liked, what musical sounds they felt particularly good performing, what sounds they love–and don’t love–to sing. I also asked them about what topics were important to them; what did they want to sing about? Their answers were hugely varied, imaginative, and cast beautiful, broad brushstrokes of possibility for this piece. 

One overarching theme was identity–individual and collective; they called for a piece that was both deeply meditative and widely accessible. The singers mentioned a desire to explore the evolution of their identity as they passed from childhood into their young adult lives, of growing up and moving on, of the fear of the unknown, the challenge of facing difficult things, and the excitement of building on the groundwork they laid in these formative musical years singing with the group. The image of a tree was the first spark for me in this work. The tree holds symbolic meaning across many, many cultures; a tree of life, a tree of (cosmic) knowledge, the world tree, a tree as a meeting place for ritual and community, a tree as protector and crucial entity of nature’s ecosystem, a tree which grows from one place and branches infinitely into so many different lifelines, a tree whose roots mirror those lifelines below the ground, hidden and strong. 

Janet Harvey Kelman’s book, Trees Shown to the Children, is part science and part wonder–it captures the balance I think we all seek (in different ratios) of knowing our world and being swept up by all that we do not know of it. This piece, then, sits in a complementary transitional space; bold and calling forward, nostalgic and recollecting, with voice parts claiming their individuality yet always cycling back in to recalibrate with the ensemble. It holds courage and confidence alongside the wonderment of it all.

I am grateful to Dr. Daley and Voices of Spirit for their contributions to the story of how this piece came to be, and for taking on the challenge of being the first to breathe new life into the work.

*Of Life There Is was commissioned by and written for the Duquesne University Voices of Spirit and their conductor, Dr. Caron Daley.

Text

In the dim long ago there [were] trees…
Strong to endure the wintry gales
Its roots spread out to a great distance,
A broad grip of the earth. 

In the dim long ago there [were] trees…
You must never forget. 

and do you remember what secrets the 
trees told us..?

…the tree had spoken of a secret 
unguessed...by [those] who look at the trees with eyes that cannot see. …
that the mystery of tree life is one with 
the mystery that underlies our own; 
that we share this mystery with the sea, 
and the sun, and the stars, 
and that by this mystery of life 
the whole world is "bound…" 

what a great deal of life there is in a tree.

Text excerpted from Trees Shown to the Children (1910)
by Janet Harvey Kelman
Text is in the public domain.