TIME IN OUR VOICES
Program Note:
“We’re all poets when we are little. Some of us just try to keep up the habit.”
- Naomi Shihab Nye, attributed to William Stafford.
Contemporary poet Naomi Shihab Nye recorded thousands of thoughts her son said when he was two and three years old. She compiled his words into her poem “One Boy Told Me,” in which Nye’s son shares valuable poetic observations about the world around us:
Twin Cities-based composer Tim Takach set excerpts of Nye’s poem in his 2011 One Boy Told Me for mixed chorus and piano. I had the opportunity to sing the piece a few years ago. Takach’s playful, warm-hearted treatment of Nye’s poem became the inspiration for today’s performance: choral music with texts written by young people.
And what better young people to help us perform this music than the outstanding youth of ComMUSICation? If you’ve been following MPLS (imPulse) for a while, you might remember our Cuentamé un cuento performance with CMC that we performed at the Wellstone Center in 2016. Since that time, our organizations have collaborated on multiple virtual projects including Danny Clay’s Sounds in Motion and the MPLS Songbook premiere of Fight Out Loud by Gabrielle Noe’l. I am energized each time we meet with the youth of CMC. They are curious, creative, and passionate young musicians. We’re honored to share the stage with them today.
Moira Smiley’s Time in Our Voices is a piece about the expressive role of the human voice over a lifetime. Each movement represents a different stage of life: a baby’s cry, a teenager’s desire for independence, an adult’s tendency to get lost in the daily “hum of all things,” and an elder adult’s appreciation for stillness. Contrary to our performance’s theme, the texts for Time in Our Voices were written by the composer, but Smiley’s words are not solely represented in the work. During the performance, the performers will play fixed audio recordings on mobile devices that feature people of all ages describing what time means to them. A recording from one child says “I love the time when I play with my Spiderman toy.” A teenager says “time gets away from me when I sing my heart out.” The voices overlap, becoming unrecognizable chatter as the choir sings.
The Place Called Planet Earth is from the Justice Choir Songbook; it is about the effects of climate change. Originally set to the tune “House of the Rising Sun,” the youth of CMC composed an entirely new tune and wrote additional verses.
Home by Minneapolis-based Carol Barnett features texts from 4th and 5th grade students in Galesburg, IL. The students were given a prompt: What is home? What gives you a sense of home? MPLS and CMC reflected on these prompts during a group activity during rehearsals and will share some of their reflections on stage.
The text for Stacey Philipps’s In the Moment was written by seven year-old Hilda Conkling. Conkling’s poem about observing a butterfly was published in a 1918 issue of Poetry Magazine, the same year as the Spanish Flu pandemic. Philipps set Conkling’s poem to music in 2020 toward the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The melody cascades between voice parts while the harmony hovers in suspension— much like a butterfly floating in the air.
The oldest texts heard in this performance are from 7th century China. Singing of Goose & Song of Snow is a two-part piece by Stephanie Chou that uses texts from the Tang Dynasty. Singing of Goose features a short poem about geese by seven year-old Luo Binwan. Song of Snow, attributed to Zhang Dayou, is a riddle about snow. The works demonstrate a dynamic use of harmony, undoubtedly attributed to Chou’s experience as a jazz musician.
Over the past week, MPLS (imPulse) and ComMUSICation singers have sung, created, and reflected together—wrestling with our perspectives of “time in our voices” and what home means to us. There is a seed of creativity that thrives in each of the youth—a reality I am reminded of each time we work together. I encourage you to stay engaged with ComMUSICation’s work by attending their performances, volunteering, and/or supporting them with a financial contribution if you can. Enjoy the performance!
Samuel Grace
Artistic Director, MPLS (imPulse)
PROGRAM TEXTS:
Time in Our Voices
Moira Smiley
I. Time Through Our Voices
Time, what is the hum of this life known through our voices -
the sounds made by our breath, flesh and bone?
II. Child Gives Voice
The lungs of babes call out "Here I am now!"
Cooing, wailing to measure this new time and space.
And soon a child gives voice to questions we forgot the asking of.
So bright their sound of play—a ringing bell of the new day.
III. Headlong
We deepen, falter, fly, and stretch again our flesh and bone to carry
self and sound—impatient now—to sing a song that is our own.
Head-long cross the threshold run into our time of "I am grown."
IV. Bounded Fields
Into our bounded fields of time, whose edges we glance now and then,
we curious (furious) and joyous throw the seeds of us into the meadow.
Humming to the hum of all things. More and more, yet more we bring.
V. Touched by Sound
When the wheel slows, intervals widen, stillness holds...
Reflections are as real as the now they mirror to us.
Cut tobone by loss, our tenderness is found.
We're broken and put back together, touched by sound.
The Place Called Planet Earth
Sheena Phillips & ComMUSICation
There is a place called Planet Earth,
it is so blue and green,
It's covered 'round with seas and skies,
a wonder to be seen.
The long ice ages came and went,
The dinosaurs they dies,
And then up came the human race
And spread itself worldwide.
There came an age of industry,
When coal and oil were mined,
And we burned them for their energy
And work of every kind.
We drove our cars along the ground,
We flew our planes above,
We felled the tress and killed the birds
And hurt the earth we loved.
And now the carbon's building up
And now the ocean's warm,
And now we need to turn around
And cease from doing harm.
So stop the hunt for fossil fuels,
And start on wind and sun,
And learn to treasure Planet Earth-
For it's our only one.
Home Is
Carol Barnett
Home is wheere love is...
Where you can be sad,
Where you can be happy.
Home is the place you leave every day,
Where you fall and where you rise,
Where you can do anything,
Where you can be anything,
Home is where you feel safe,
Safe and loved.
Home is the blanket my mom pulls out of the dryer.
Home tastes like the cake that my mom cooks.
Home feels like my dog cuddling with me.
Home looks like organized books on a bookshelf.
Home sounds like someone saying, "I love you."
For me, home is in two different places.
For me, I am part of two different races.
My first home was across the land and sea.
That's where half my heart will always be.
My second is here.
Oh, can you hear
The instant chatter,
The silverware's clatter,
The call to home
For the days to come?
Even with your heart in two different places
You can always call both home.
Home is love.
Home is family,
Rich in kindness and joy,
Where your heart abides,
And where all your hopes flourish,
Where love is endless, everlasting
and eternal.
In the Moment
Stacey Philipps
Butterfly
I like the way you wear your wings.
Show me their colors,
For the light is going.
Spread out their edges of gold,
Before the Sandman puts me to sleep
And evening murmurs by.
Singing of Goose & Song of Snow
Stephanie Chou
Goose: [Mandarin / Pinyin / English]
鹅，鹅，鹅，
曲项向天歌。
白毛浮绿水，
红掌拨清波。
E, e, e,
Qu xiang, xiang tian ge.
Bai mao fu lv shui,
Hong zhang bo qing bo.
Goose – Goose – Goose,
Necks arched, they sing to the sky,
White feather floating on green water,
Crimson webs paddling clear ripples.
Song of Snow: [Mandarin / Pinyin / English
Introduction text translation (written by Stephanie Chou):
Come on everyone,
gather 'round. I'm going to tell you a riddle.
Try and guess it!
江上一笼统，
井上黑窟窿。
黄狗身上白，
白狗身上肿。
Jiang shang yi long tong,
Jin shang hei ku long.
Huang gou shen shang bai
bai gou shen shang zhong.
The river is one sweeping sight;
The well looks like a hole in the night.
Yellow dog is covered with white;
White dog looks swollen all right.
Xue? [Snow?]
Xia xue! [Yes, snow!]
One Boy Told Me
Tim Takach
Music lives inside my legs,
It's coming out when I talk.
There's a stopper in my arm
that's not going to let me grow any bigger.
I'll be like this always, small.
I'll invite a bee to live in your shoe.
What if you found your shoe
full of honey?
My tongue is the car wash
for the spoon.
Just think—no one has ever seen
inside this peanut before!
When I grow up my old names
will live in the house
where we live now.
I'll come and visit them.
What does minus mean?
I never want to minus you.
I do and don't love you --
isn't that happiness?
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Program Note:
“We’re all poets when we are little. Some of us just try to keep up the habit.”
- Naomi Shihab Nye, attributed to William Stafford.
Contemporary poet Naomi Shihab Nye recorded thousands of thoughts her son said when he was two and three years old. She compiled his words into her poem “One Boy Told Me,” in which Nye’s son shares valuable poetic observations about the world around us:
- “Oatmeal cookies make my throat gallop.”
- “Grown-ups keep their feet on the ground when they swing. I hate that.”
- “Is it true all metal was liquid first? Does that mean if we bought our car earlier, they could have served it in a cup?”
- “What if the clock said 6:92 instead of 6:30. Would you be scared?”
Twin Cities-based composer Tim Takach set excerpts of Nye’s poem in his 2011 One Boy Told Me for mixed chorus and piano. I had the opportunity to sing the piece a few years ago. Takach’s playful, warm-hearted treatment of Nye’s poem became the inspiration for today’s performance: choral music with texts written by young people.
And what better young people to help us perform this music than the outstanding youth of ComMUSICation? If you’ve been following MPLS (imPulse) for a while, you might remember our Cuentamé un cuento performance with CMC that we performed at the Wellstone Center in 2016. Since that time, our organizations have collaborated on multiple virtual projects including Danny Clay’s Sounds in Motion and the MPLS Songbook premiere of Fight Out Loud by Gabrielle Noe’l. I am energized each time we meet with the youth of CMC. They are curious, creative, and passionate young musicians. We’re honored to share the stage with them today.
Moira Smiley’s Time in Our Voices is a piece about the expressive role of the human voice over a lifetime. Each movement represents a different stage of life: a baby’s cry, a teenager’s desire for independence, an adult’s tendency to get lost in the daily “hum of all things,” and an elder adult’s appreciation for stillness. Contrary to our performance’s theme, the texts for Time in Our Voices were written by the composer, but Smiley’s words are not solely represented in the work. During the performance, the performers will play fixed audio recordings on mobile devices that feature people of all ages describing what time means to them. A recording from one child says “I love the time when I play with my Spiderman toy.” A teenager says “time gets away from me when I sing my heart out.” The voices overlap, becoming unrecognizable chatter as the choir sings.
The Place Called Planet Earth is from the Justice Choir Songbook; it is about the effects of climate change. Originally set to the tune “House of the Rising Sun,” the youth of CMC composed an entirely new tune and wrote additional verses.
Home by Minneapolis-based Carol Barnett features texts from 4th and 5th grade students in Galesburg, IL. The students were given a prompt: What is home? What gives you a sense of home? MPLS and CMC reflected on these prompts during a group activity during rehearsals and will share some of their reflections on stage.
The text for Stacey Philipps’s In the Moment was written by seven year-old Hilda Conkling. Conkling’s poem about observing a butterfly was published in a 1918 issue of Poetry Magazine, the same year as the Spanish Flu pandemic. Philipps set Conkling’s poem to music in 2020 toward the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The melody cascades between voice parts while the harmony hovers in suspension— much like a butterfly floating in the air.
The oldest texts heard in this performance are from 7th century China. Singing of Goose & Song of Snow is a two-part piece by Stephanie Chou that uses texts from the Tang Dynasty. Singing of Goose features a short poem about geese by seven year-old Luo Binwan. Song of Snow, attributed to Zhang Dayou, is a riddle about snow. The works demonstrate a dynamic use of harmony, undoubtedly attributed to Chou’s experience as a jazz musician.
Over the past week, MPLS (imPulse) and ComMUSICation singers have sung, created, and reflected together—wrestling with our perspectives of “time in our voices” and what home means to us. There is a seed of creativity that thrives in each of the youth—a reality I am reminded of each time we work together. I encourage you to stay engaged with ComMUSICation’s work by attending their performances, volunteering, and/or supporting them with a financial contribution if you can. Enjoy the performance!
Samuel Grace
Artistic Director, MPLS (imPulse)
PROGRAM TEXTS:
Time in Our Voices
Moira Smiley
I. Time Through Our Voices
Time, what is the hum of this life known through our voices -
the sounds made by our breath, flesh and bone?
II. Child Gives Voice
The lungs of babes call out "Here I am now!"
Cooing, wailing to measure this new time and space.
And soon a child gives voice to questions we forgot the asking of.
So bright their sound of play—a ringing bell of the new day.
III. Headlong
We deepen, falter, fly, and stretch again our flesh and bone to carry
self and sound—impatient now—to sing a song that is our own.
Head-long cross the threshold run into our time of "I am grown."
IV. Bounded Fields
Into our bounded fields of time, whose edges we glance now and then,
we curious (furious) and joyous throw the seeds of us into the meadow.
Humming to the hum of all things. More and more, yet more we bring.
V. Touched by Sound
When the wheel slows, intervals widen, stillness holds...
Reflections are as real as the now they mirror to us.
Cut tobone by loss, our tenderness is found.
We're broken and put back together, touched by sound.
The Place Called Planet Earth
Sheena Phillips & ComMUSICation
There is a place called Planet Earth,
it is so blue and green,
It's covered 'round with seas and skies,
a wonder to be seen.
The long ice ages came and went,
The dinosaurs they dies,
And then up came the human race
And spread itself worldwide.
There came an age of industry,
When coal and oil were mined,
And we burned them for their energy
And work of every kind.
We drove our cars along the ground,
We flew our planes above,
We felled the tress and killed the birds
And hurt the earth we loved.
And now the carbon's building up
And now the ocean's warm,
And now we need to turn around
And cease from doing harm.
So stop the hunt for fossil fuels,
And start on wind and sun,
And learn to treasure Planet Earth-
For it's our only one.
Home Is
Carol Barnett
Home is wheere love is...
Where you can be sad,
Where you can be happy.
Home is the place you leave every day,
Where you fall and where you rise,
Where you can do anything,
Where you can be anything,
Home is where you feel safe,
Safe and loved.
Home is the blanket my mom pulls out of the dryer.
Home tastes like the cake that my mom cooks.
Home feels like my dog cuddling with me.
Home looks like organized books on a bookshelf.
Home sounds like someone saying, "I love you."
For me, home is in two different places.
For me, I am part of two different races.
My first home was across the land and sea.
That's where half my heart will always be.
My second is here.
Oh, can you hear
The instant chatter,
The silverware's clatter,
The call to home
For the days to come?
Even with your heart in two different places
You can always call both home.
Home is love.
Home is family,
Rich in kindness and joy,
Where your heart abides,
And where all your hopes flourish,
Where love is endless, everlasting
and eternal.
In the Moment
Stacey Philipps
Butterfly
I like the way you wear your wings.
Show me their colors,
For the light is going.
Spread out their edges of gold,
Before the Sandman puts me to sleep
And evening murmurs by.
Singing of Goose & Song of Snow
Stephanie Chou
Goose: [Mandarin / Pinyin / English]
鹅，鹅，鹅，
曲项向天歌。
白毛浮绿水，
红掌拨清波。
E, e, e,
Qu xiang, xiang tian ge.
Bai mao fu lv shui,
Hong zhang bo qing bo.
Goose – Goose – Goose,
Necks arched, they sing to the sky,
White feather floating on green water,
Crimson webs paddling clear ripples.
Song of Snow: [Mandarin / Pinyin / English
Introduction text translation (written by Stephanie Chou):
Come on everyone,
gather 'round. I'm going to tell you a riddle.
Try and guess it!
江上一笼统，
井上黑窟窿。
黄狗身上白，
白狗身上肿。
Jiang shang yi long tong,
Jin shang hei ku long.
Huang gou shen shang bai
bai gou shen shang zhong.
The river is one sweeping sight;
The well looks like a hole in the night.
Yellow dog is covered with white;
White dog looks swollen all right.
Xue? [Snow?]
Xia xue! [Yes, snow!]
One Boy Told Me
Tim Takach
Music lives inside my legs,
It's coming out when I talk.
There's a stopper in my arm
that's not going to let me grow any bigger.
I'll be like this always, small.
I'll invite a bee to live in your shoe.
What if you found your shoe
full of honey?
My tongue is the car wash
for the spoon.
Just think—no one has ever seen
inside this peanut before!
When I grow up my old names
will live in the house
where we live now.
I'll come and visit them.
What does minus mean?
I never want to minus you.
I do and don't love you --
isn't that happiness?
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
- Mark Tiede and St. John's Lutheran Church (Minneapolis)
- St. Paul Fellowship Church
- Kate Vishneski
- Jamie Marshall
- Emma Plehal
- Bea Rendón
- Ian Cook
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
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