Hard Stones
Year Composed
2018
Duration
12:00
Instrumentation
soprano and piano
Program Notes
Leading into 2017, I attended the Avaloch Farm Music Institute with my very dear friend, Ann Moss. Our plan there was to work on a new set of Edna St. Vincent setting we had planned some months before; but, leading up to our stint there, she sent me a set of poems she had just read from her longtime friend and collaborator, Lisa DeSiro, written about Lisa’s experience in Boston during the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. What struck me about the poems was their immediacy, their very non-linear path from trauma to understanding to healing—and while I wasn’t in Boston during that window, we are (very frustratingly) near to events like this in America more often than we all should be. I can’t thank Lisa enough for letting me take on this image of hurt and healing—it’s a genuine privilege to work with her sharp, personal, thoughtful texts.
Additional Information
Five songs for soprano and piano written for and dedicated to Ann Moss, soprano, on the fifth anniversary of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. With poetry by Lisa DeSiro.
Movements:
I. National Public Radio
II. Lockdown
III. Boston Strong
IV. After the Marathon Bombing V. Resilience