Basic Information

Instrumentation: SA, or soprano and backing choir
Duration: 4:15
Year composed: 2023

Description

This piece was inspired by the call-and-response prayers of my childhood in a conservative Jewish shul. The rabbi would intone a phrase, and the congregation repeated it back. I found this style of worship affirming, and while I’m not a religious person now, that style of communal singing had a major impact on me.

I especially thought it appropriate when talking about names and remembrance. We are all human, and we want our names to remain in history. We want to be remembered.

And while the subject of this poem, Samir, had his surname lost to history, I hope this piece helps us declare that he was here, and that his name, and his life, is important to all of us.

Written based on a text by Zsuzsanna Ardó for the Shadow and Light project; now part of the PlanetWoman project.

Lyrics

A poem by Zsuzsanna Ardó

named
like himself
his surname survived
not, yet memory inhales

named
charred air
simmers on, yesterday’s embers
smoulder today, scorch tomorrow

named
retain how names
taste, anonymous sparks
witness, sans eyewitness

named
memory traces
names unknown echo
fragmented, reverberate

named
eyes remain
unblinkered witness to shadow
and light, names unnamed

named
like himself
his surname survived
not, yet memory inhales

Score & Recording

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