Description
Published by Graphite Publishing.
We Are the Stars is a luminous and uplifting choral work that brings Joyce Sidman’s evocative poem to shimmering life. Scored for mixed choir and string quartet, the piece captures the buoyant energy and quiet strength of the stars as a metaphor for human connection across space and solitude.
The music sparkles with rhythmic vitality and warmth, mirroring the poem’s central image of light singing through the darkness. Lively, dancing motifs in the strings support vocal lines that soar and shimmer, weaving together moments of introspection with bursts of communal radiance.
Though the text acknowledges loneliness, the piece is ultimately a celebration of unity — of “hearts…burning as brightly” in a vast and brilliant constellation. With a spirit that is both tender and exultant, We Are the Stars invites performers and audiences alike to find solace and joy in shared light.
Text
We are the stars, who sing
from a distant place.
Yes, you are alone in your orbit,
as we are.
Yes, your light burns fiercely,
as fiercely as ours.
The thin wind of loneliness
may howl around you,
suck the breath from your fire.
But look before you
and behind you.
Look above you
and below you.
See how many other hearts are burning,
burning as brightly as yours.
We are the stars.
We sing with our light
in our vast, brilliant constellations:
alone,
together.
– Joyce Sidman
“Blessing from the Stars” from WHAT THE HEART KNOWS: Chants, Charms, and Blessings by Joyce Sidman. Text © 2013 by Joyce Sidman. Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.