I Will Build Us a Home

I Will Build Us a Home was written for my wife, Mandee, and premiered at our wedding ceremony on June 16, 2023. The text is an original poem of mine that serves as an addendum to my nuptial vows. Each stanza of the poem imagines a home in a different setting, from the idyllic country to the bustling city, and the spaces between and beyond. Within these stanzas are references to the types of life my wife and I have imagined with one another: our love of greenery and nature, her interest in sewing and my interest in wild honey, our zeal for experiencing live art and music. What lies at the center of our dream, however, is the knowledge that we are safe and loved with each other, and that ultimately we have already found home in one another. Much of the musical inspiration for this work comes from Carolyn Shaw's And the Swallow, which also features prominent themes of one finding one's home and keeping one's family, as well as Samuel Barber's "The Coolin" from Reincarnations, which dwells heavily on the theme of safety in one's love for their partner. Shaw's elements present themselves in the texture and simple motions of the uniting phrase of the composition: "Shelter and warmth and love," while the influence of Barber can be heard in the undulating melodic lines that mark the individual stanzas of the poem.