Remembering the Clouds
Ensemble
Soprano, Flute, and Piano
Duration
Approx. 12 minutes
Recording
❦
Score
Texts
Dream by Leanne O’Sullivan
I think I could go home now
and begin again,
turn in through the gate
of the field where the light
dies last, lies down
in the whispery borders.
The Nowhere Birds by Caitríona O’Reilly
In past centuries it was believed that migrating birds would winter on the moon
There is no leaving for them
in such shifts south,
best weather is their territory,
their existence its insects
swallowed like distance.
For us, just a surging
of sky-piercing shapes,
pointed birds in search of moon-food,
and the weighty northern day
bereft. But from these beliefs
and from their visiting wings’
return were angels made.
These Are the Clouds by W.B. Yeats
These are the clouds about the fallen sun,
The majesty that shuts his burning eye:
The weak lay hand on what the strong has done,
Till that be tumbled that was lifted high
And discord follow upon unison,
And all things at one common level lie.
And therefore, friend, if your great race were run
And these things came, so much the more thereby
Have you made greatness your companion,
Although it be for children that you sigh:
These are the clouds about the fallen sun,
The majesty that shuts his burning eye.
The Presider by Geoffrey Nutter
So I am ready with the waves
said the sea, said the sea;
said the sky, “So am I,
so am I,” said the sky.
Two planes passed overhead
like titan swans
and were gone
as you can see, into the sky.
And in the sea
two mighty ships
like titan swans went drifting by
and soon were gone.
And if they met
on the run
where the sun began to set
and were one, the sea and sky?
When I met with my presider
of a day, that day I thought
my time had come
but alas, it had not
and it was not to be.
And that day, so like Tithonus,
what I ask becomes distorted
and a gift
becomes a task.
Something happened in between
as in between the sea and sky
and that horizon
I could not see
as it was dawn.
Commissioned by
Kate Fruchterman and Brendan Ryan
World Premiere
April 4, 2015 by Kate Fruchtermann, Soprano and Brendan Ryan, Flute at Boston Flute Academy, Boston, Massachusetts.
❦