THE SONG OF THE SEA
The singer, powerful spirit, alive to the world around her, loving friend, insightful mother, has made the nearby sea a companion all her long life. Just as she would know if her children were in distress, she senses that the ocean waters are deeply wounded - as if all human beings are driven into exile by their alienation from, and damage of, the created world.
"The Song of the Sea" is from the large-scale work "The Wound in the Water" commissioned for the Opening Concert of St. Olav Festival, Trondheim, Norway (Olavsfestdagene) in 2016 and premiered by Conspirare, soprano soloist Elin Manahan Thomas and conductor Craig Hella Johnson.
THE TEXT
I have walked this shore
all my life; my children leap
among the waves
like a spray of fire,
and always listen:
I’ll know any change
in their voices, I’ll hear
the hidden sound
of their anguish or fear,
and in the last years
I have been shocked
into silence here:
the song of this sea
is changing,
its music slowly unfamiliar,
the song becoming a cry,
like a vast creature
with a visceral wound.
The isstorm wind
howlI’m being led
I am no longer home, .away
like a captive of myself,
like a sudden stranger,
like an exile.
Euan Tait
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