Basic Information
Instrumentation: Choral (SSA)
Duration: 3:40
Year composed: 2021
Description
Down the Jersey Shore, many beach towns have “memorial benches” on their boardwalks. Residents and visitors can purchase a plaque, in memory of a loved one, to be affixed to a bench.
Walking the Cape May boardwalk on a foggy day, it was hard not to feel that the nature of these benches is fleeting —- climate change is leading to sea level rise, after all.
I wondered, what would happen to these benches, if they’re swallowed by the ocean? Will we remember them, and why we created them in the first place?
While Sitting Here, Remember Me is a bittersweet admiration of the benches themselves, and our desire of permanence in a changing world.
This piece was written for Elisabeth van Os and the 2021 Western Wind Workshop.
Lyrics
All lyrics in quotes are texts from memorial benches at various boardwalks down the Jersey shore.
I wrote the rest of the lyrics.
“In honor of.”
“In loving memory.”
“Keep us smiling.”
They made their mark on the sand
“His paradise found”
“Who made it all possible”
At their fav’rite place
Down the shore.
“While sitting here, remember me.”
And as the seas rise
They’ll find metal plates on benches
With words of love
and our names
We were here.
“In honor of.”
“Forever in our hearts.”
“Let me live on in your eyes.”
They made their mark on the sand.
As the seas rise
“While sitting here, remember me.”
Score & Recording
Performed on November 11, 2023 at the Iowa School of Music, at a recital arranged by Madeline Yankell.
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