Nick Norton

Moon Songs

About the piece

WomenSing and River of Words commissioned me to write this piece, using text from their library of poetry written by children. I got to work with Libby Larsen as my mentor on a public workshop of the piece up in the Bay Area on April 30, 2011. They then premiered the piece on June 5, 2011 in Berkeley, with a second performance on June 8 in Lafayette. They were awesome. The crowd was awesome. I'd like to work with them again on something.

Score

Click here to view or download the score.

Instrumentation

SSAA chorus with solos and divisi
Piano
Percussion

Text

    Horizon please continue
    Until the end of the sky
    Your
    Mingled tinted twilights
    Prelude to a pearly sliced moon
    You are the dividing line
    Between gravity and geese
    Crossed by dimmed silhouettes.

    From My Boat
    From my boat,
    I like the night
    I do not think
    the moon
    is the moon.
    I think the moon is
    a manta ray.
    The stars and fish
    swim in the
    black water.

    Reflection
    Yesterday,
    I found a person just like me
    in the frozen pond.

    Untitled
    The moon voice
    shouts out
    brilliant twilight
    through acres of black sky

    My World
    I stand on the moon
    Looking at the big, round, blue earth
    And I'm going to eat it
    Very, very slowly