Instrumentation:

symphonic orchestra

This piece exists in three slightly different instrumentations, but can be arranged to fit the exact instrumentation of your ensemble. It was jointly commissioned by three different youth orchestras, and is appropriate for advanced youth and community orchestras, as well as orchestras at the undergraduate level.

This product listing is for the score only, so that music directors can determine if the piece is suitable for their ensemble. Please contact me if you wish to rent or purchase parts, or to have the instrumentation adjusted for your ensemble.

Duration:

7 min

Year:

2019

Program Notes:

a thread run through

for A. H. Schwartz in memoriam

Separation

by W. S. Merwin

Your absence has gone through me

Like thread through a needle.

Everything I do is stitched with its color.

a thread run through explores a wide range of emotions, such as one might experience when grieving; sweeping melodic statements of anger and passion; the juxtaposition of life moving along while the inner world stands still; the uneven regularity of sobbing and ritualized public displays of mourning; the calm and clarity of grief morphing into a palatable sadness.

This work was jointly commissioned by the Philadelphia Sinfonia Players, the Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA), and the School District of Haverford Township’s Music Department. Many thanks to these ensembles and their music directors for entrusting me to write a piece for their young musicians.

W. S. Merwin, “Separation” from The Second Four Books of Poems (Port Townsend, Washington: Copper Canyon Press, 1993). Copyright © 1993 by W. S. Merwin. Reprinted with the permission of The Wylie Agency, Inc.

Source: The Second Four Books of Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 1993) https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/28891/separation-56d21285b2140

Performance History:

premieres postponed due to COVID

Available for digital download as PDF

This is for the SCORE ONLY for perusal.