Description
Flight is a multi-movement choral work that was commissioned by Phil Hettema for Vox Femina’s 20th Anniversary season. The texts by Janet Windeler Ryan (“I. Sky Song”) and Julia Klatt Singer (“II. Come Spring” and “III. This Sky Falls”) are varied depictions of the act of taking flight. In “I. Sky Song”, flight is a process of becoming: the restless struggle to break the bonds of gravity and leave everything behind: the rooftops of civilization, the people who held you back. In victory, the music soars as flight is achieved: “this sky song is mine!” “II. Come, Spring” is a longing for renewal.
Angular, fragmented motives punctuate the silence like tender shoots poking through the frosty ground, building to a sudden ascent and a call for the return of Spring: returning birds, waking trees, and a restoration of the world’s beauty.
“III. This Sky Falls” is a ballad with the groove of flight achieved, basking in the freedom of a glorious, sustained glide through the sky and the way the magnificent vista alights within our bodies and under our skin.
– Holley Replogle-Wong
Performed by VOX Femina, Dr. Iris S. Levine, conductor.
Text
Text
I. Sky Song
When all is dark and still,
I steal away into the night.
Under the midnight moon,
the sky becomes my own.
Clouds emboldened by the fire of the stars
swirl and sway around me.
They tease me into the blackness,
Away, far away from the tidy brick houses
with their tended lawns,
the tenuous promises,
and tainted tongues.
Over the rooftops,
Clear above the maple trees I soar,
the rushing air cool and sweet
as a young lover’s touch.
I have forgotten your name.
And I have left behind the pallor of the day.
What lies before me has no end.
Only this moment, this sky song,
is mine.
– Janet Windeler Ryan
II. Come, Spring
We find ourselves
in a world less light,
the hours of darkness
upon us.
We find ourselves
watching the sky,
for the sign, for the storm,
for it’s coming.
O to fight
each slur, each slap.
Each injustice, each
inequity.
O to take flight;
flock together, flee
to a world that is warm,
& welcoming.
Come spring
We’ll take the shape
of tender shoots, the sky—
the blue, of small pools.
We’ll fly
on the wings of returning birds
to the music
of waking trees.
We’ll fall silver
with the rain.
Make the world kind
& beautiful again.
– Julia Klatt Singer
3. This Sky Falls
The sky
Looks like it is fire
The lake, silver
And I wonder
What my skin tastes like
After seeing something
Like this.
I watch as the night
Swallows the curve of the sun
Buttons up the darkness,
Leaving us lone
pinpricks of light.
For surely
This sky falls, sinks
Beneath my skin
Just as the cold does, just
As the snow. Just as the moon
Does, when it is waning
Just as the clouds do
When they can’t help but break.
Some moments I am nothing more
Than driftwood, fox prints, flight.
– Julia Klatt Singer
Program Note
Flight is a multi-movement choral work by Jocelyn Hagen that was commissioned by Phil Hettema for Vox Femina’s 20th Anniversary season. The texts by Janet Windeler Ryan (“I. Sky Song”) and Julia Klatt Singer (“II. Come Spring” and “III. This Sky Falls”) are varied depictions of the act of taking flight. In “I. Sky Song”, flight is a process of becoming: the restless struggle to break the bonds of gravity and leave everything behind: the rooftops of civilization, the people who held you back. In victory, the music soars as flight is achieved: “this sky song is mine!” “II. Come, Spring” is a longing for renewal. Angular, fragmented motives punctuate the silence like tender shoots poking through the frosty ground, building to a sudden ascent and a call for the return of Spring: returning birds, waking trees, and a restoration of the world’s beauty. “III. This Sky Falls” is a ballad with the groove of flight achieved, basking in the freedom of a glorious, sustained glide through the sky and the way the magnificent vista alights within our bodies and under our skin.
– Holley Replogle-Wong
