Videos
ANDREA REINKEMEYER: The Thaw for Soprano, Tenor, Mixed Choir & Wind Ensemble (2016)
18 May 2020
Andrea Reinkemeyer, music (http://andreareinkemeyer.com/)
Artis Henderson, text
Commissioned by Rodney Dorsey for the University of Oregon
Premiere performance:
Carolyn Quick, soprano; Cole Blume, tenor
University Singers (Sharon Paul, director)
Oregon Wind Ensemble
Rodney Dorsey, conductor
The Thaw
I am the bud curled tight against the cold.
I am the bulb beneath the snow.
I am the white sky, the long night, the crack and shudder of ice.
I wait beside the adder’s tongue, the cobra lily, the purple hyacinth
for the soil to stir and the river to swell.
I wait through mist and hail.
I am fog and breath and cloud.
I am the cherries on the branches, too green.
I am rain.
And rain.
And rain.
And then --
I am the windows flung open to catch the sun,
my mouth like cherries,
the heat building in me.
I am leaf-touched, sun-tasted, petal-kissed.
I am wind and light and sky.
I am the cleft in the ridge; I am the river --
roaring, roaring,
flooded with rain.
-- Artis Henderson
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