slow dance
for soprano and piano - 2014, ca 4-5 minutes
commissioned by the Free University Berlin Composition Course with Samuel Adler
text by David St. John
Premiered by Donna Lee, soprano, and Stefan Paul, piano:
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Program Note
The text is adapted by the composer from David St. John's poem "Slow Dance," which can be found in Mr. St. John's collections Hush (1976) and Study for the World's Body (1994). The words as they appear in this song are:
It is an act of grace & disgust.
A slow dance. To get along.
We know lovers who quarrel
At a party stay in the cool trajectory
Of the other's glance,
Spinning through pockets of conversation, sliding in and out
Betweeen us all until they brush
Back to back, and the one hooks
An ankle around the other's foot.
And we begin
Once more to move: Place to place. Hand
To smoother and more lovely hand. A slow dance. To get along.
Yet, you want none of it. Only, to return
To the countryside.
You turn your back to any other life
And everyone simply dances away.