Travelers (text by Laura Marris)

2011
/
Choral Works

Details

Category

Choral Works

librettist

WordS by

Laura Marris

instrumentation

SATB

duration

4'

commissioned by

premiered by

Yale Glee Club Chamber Singers conducted by Miles Canaday

Purchase Score

Travelers

Like the leaves paired with their shadows

like the leaves and their falling shadows

they walk on the road.

We see them in the evening

walking together

walking with lowered eyes.

We don't know what they look for

only that they are hungry

only that in the hills

the trees have fallen

where once there was a house.

They talk under the trees,

between the shadows of birches.

Sometimes, we see their fires-

In the night,

Who holds the guitar?

Whose feet are wrapped in cloth?

Who has walked the longest,

how many steps, vying with the darkness,

the tunnel of the road?

Who has bathed his hands in the running stream?

And tell us, whose is the voice?

-Laura Marris

“Alex Weiser, a New Yorker who studied at Yale University, was drawn to “Travelers,” an enigmatic poem by a friend, Laura Marris, for an a cappella work of the same title, first performed at Yale in 2011. Mr. Weiser captured both the specific and elusive qualities of the poetic imagery in his compelling music, which sometimes breaks down a phrase and repeats the words, as if to get at the meaning. The urgent performance was led by Max Blum, the chorus’s excellent assistant conductor.”
The New York Times
1
cOMPONENT divider

Travelers (text by Laura Marris)

Purchase Score
duration

4'

instrumentation

SATB

premiered by

Yale Glee Club Chamber Singers conducted by Miles Canaday

commissioned by

Travelers (text by Laura Marris)

Travelers

Like the leaves paired with their shadows

like the leaves and their falling shadows

they walk on the road.

We see them in the evening

walking together

walking with lowered eyes.

We don't know what they look for

only that they are hungry

only that in the hills

the trees have fallen

where once there was a house.

They talk under the trees,

between the shadows of birches.

Sometimes, we see their fires-

In the night,

Who holds the guitar?

Whose feet are wrapped in cloth?

Who has walked the longest,

how many steps, vying with the darkness,

the tunnel of the road?

Who has bathed his hands in the running stream?

And tell us, whose is the voice?

-Laura Marris

“Alex Weiser, a New Yorker who studied at Yale University, was drawn to “Travelers,” an enigmatic poem by a friend, Laura Marris, for an a cappella work of the same title, first performed at Yale in 2011. Mr. Weiser captured both the specific and elusive qualities of the poetic imagery in his compelling music, which sometimes breaks down a phrase and repeats the words, as if to get at the meaning. The urgent performance was led by Max Blum, the chorus’s excellent assistant conductor.”
The New York Times
2