Even in Darkness

Program Notes

Even in Darkness was commissioned in 2009 by the Packer Collegiate Institute for its Concert Chorus and Choral Director Esther Harris. An unexpected change in chorus personnel following the composition made the piece a less suitable fit for the ensemble. Instead, Ms. Harris premiered the work with her other group, the Juilliard Pre-College Middle School Chorus. None of the young singers in the ensemble is a vocal major, yet there was evidence of some really strong musicianship in the chorus. Ms. Harris asked me to conduct one of the rehearsals for a while. It was particularly entertaining walking these 6th- through 8th-graders through the random section, teaching them to ignore one of the basic tenets of choral singing, namely singing together as an ensemble!

The work follows the darkness-to-light shape of this aphoristic and evocative poem by Wendell Berry. Imitative lines emerge from out of the gloom and eventually bloom into a bright chord on the word “love”. The electrical storm, ingeniously presented by the poet as a positive force, is conveyed in an aleatoric “lightning” section. The piece fades away with suggestions, gentler now, of the opening music, the storm passing by.

Even in darkness, love
Wendell Berry

Even in darkness, love 
shows the circumference
of the world, lightning
quivering on horizons
in the summer night.