If Thou Must Love Me

Inspiration comes from any place, and sometimes the most resonant places are the most innocuous. The poetry found on the packaging of Xoxox chocolate bars are a familiar source to me, since I have used a poem I discovered through them before in a previous piece. Ideas can strike you at any time, and I like to keep my mind open to the places they can come to us. How I connected with this piece was with the way it spoke about love and I wanted to have a dialogue with the poet, in a way. The piece is made of sections that form a kind of narrative arc as well as a musical one, carrying the momentum of the discussion between the voices and the momentum of the music. It was interesting trying to find a balance with what parts of the text to bring forward and which ideas of my own to use as emphasis. It opens peacefully and almost wistfully, the sopranos and altos sharing the idea of loving. Then the tenors and basses bring in some dramatic force, sharing their own ideas of a sort of puppy love as some experience it first. In their dialogue, all of the voices come together to learn to love for love's own sake, so they can love for eternity. Effervescence defines the ending and brings it all back to a calmness, the lesson learned by the singers and perhaps the audience as well. The narrative arc of the piece is complete by returning to the familiar where we are now changed in our understanding.