Скачать или смотреть Thread (2019)

poetry by Henry H. Benjamin.
Original music composed and conducted by Erika Malpass.
Performed by St. Olaf College musicians:
sopranos:
Grace Jackson ’19, Hope Carey ‘19, Grace Brigham ’20, Lauren Zimmerman ’21, Gabbie Holtzman ’21, Grace Kenny ’19
altos:
Bethany Fransten ’19, Emi Kaliski ’20, Madeline Miller ’20, Meredith Maloley ’21, Margaret Lindahl ’19, Julia Porter ’19
percussion:
Kevin Yetter ’19, Jack Reynertson ’20, Anders Olson ’20, Sophie Koehler ’20
bass clarinet:
Jackson Brown ’20

Video Courtesy St. Olaf College. Used by Permission.

Trace the silence
In the air
The line tossed
Into the sea of noise
Feel it in the space
Between your running fingers

Take it, weave it
Into your walk,
Your clothes and your words
Direct it as much
As it directs you

Feel the way it flows
Away from all the edges,
The jagged borders,
And through the soft parts
Of this rough world

It is nothing
But another simple absence
A reduction of that
Which totals us
To follow it is to see
What shape you take
When you force less
Into the world

I was drawn to this poem because of the musical imagery it provides: the thought of silence weaving and flowing through every moment of life, a resting place in the chaos we so often face in our lives. For me, music - created out of this silence, this moment of calm - provides the same comfort from the roughness of the world.