Just a Beginning (SATB div.) (2023)
This piece is priced for a large ensemble. When appropriate, use code MEDIUMSENSEMBLE for 50% off and SMALLENSEMBLE for 75% off. All scores are on a sliding scale. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with me for alternative pricing.
“What a slow breath let out from the porch
as the sun rises over pine trees—
my wife teaching our daughter
to brown roux without burning flour.”
- Jack Bedell (1966—)
Just a Beginning opens and closes Dylan’s larger work, Color All Maps New (in progress), a choral suite of poems from Lousiana Poet Laureate (‘17-’19) Jack Bedell, examining the effects of climate change on the southeastern US through the lens of family, community, and cultural lineage. The “bittersweet” harmony of the piece is a throughline in Dylan’s music, embodying an existence at several unique intersections of identity, expressing the duality of profound joy informed by deep sorrow. Just a Beginning asks us to experience all of this at once, to breathe together and be present in these moments holding everything that was, is, and is yet to come.
