Breath
DURATION
5’10”
INSTRUMENTATION
SATB (div.) a cappella
POET
Jerre Dye
YEAR COMPOSED
2022
COMMISSIONER
Commissioned by the William Baker Choral Foundation for the inaugural performance of Vox Venti (Ed Frazier Davis, Artistic Director)
ORDERING SCORES
This work is published as a digital score with a performance license. The pricing is based on the number of singers in a choir:
- $60: up to 20 singers
- $120: 21-50 singers
- $180: 51-79 singers
- $240: 80+ singers
- Click on the link to email Inkjar Publishing Company
- Specify the number of singers and the name of your choir.
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PERUSAL SCORE
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TEXT
Breath of life,
a wind,
a breeze,
the leaves begin to stir around me,
gathering, scampering,
dancing, as if on a string,
to bring me back a memory...
the tenderness that I recall,
just before we lost it all.
Currents drift me deeper and deeper.
The wind that finds me
now reminds me
it was once a mighty storm
that toppled trees,
thrashed at seas
and brought the mountains
to their knees
in sudden, violent supplication,
passion, beauty, devastation.
Breaking all there was to break
with nothing standing in its wake,
subsiding
to
a
sigh.
And now that same wind gently speaks,
mild and meek
to kiss my cheek
and send me softly on my way
as everything
comes spiraling,
conspiring,
untiring,
to whisper faintly in my ear:
"You survived the storm.
You're still here."
Breath of life,
a wind,
a breeze,
the leaves take all away from me,
drifting, gliding, tumbling onward
and I take
a long,
deep
breath.
Copyright ©2022 Jerre Dye