Stars Through the Rain by Adrienne Inglis (ASCAP) and Walter Torres (BMI) — world premiere

Commissioned by Inversion Ensemble for Inversion Nova’s Star Stuff concert

Text

Stars Through the Rain by Kim Stafford

​It’s hard to be alone. You see how the moon makes a rainbow.

​You know you can’t show another soul stars through the rain.

It’s hard to be alone. You watch how the moon makes a rainbow.

​You wonder, will you ever show another soul stars through the rain.

​Why live alone? You watch as the moon makes a rainbow.

​Someday I’ll show another soul stars through the rain.

How to be alone: you watch how the moon makes a rainbow.

​You wonder will you ever show another soul stars through the rain.

​​Someday I’ll show another soul stars through the rain

Program note — Commissioned by Inversion’s new youth choir Nova for its inaugural concert “Star Stuff” in June 2023, Stars Through the Rain is scored for SAB chorus by Adrienne Inglis with electronic track created by Walter Torres. Kim Stafford’s poignant poem of the same name tells the story of a young woman living alone in a remote corner of the world. She witnesses remarkable images of a rainbow over the moon and stars showing through the rain showers. She yearns to share these beautiful experiences with another person. The piece sets the choruses of the poem, which start in a lonely mood and subtly evolve, giving the listener the hope of being lifted into a sharing relationship with another soul. The electronic track weaves natural and synthesized elements together, creating a dreamlike soundscape evoking the night sky. The emotive arpeggiated melody line alternates between minor and major tonality, capturing her melancholic yet hopeful yearning to share this sublime moment with somebody else. The driving percussion elements represent the pitter-patter of rain drops. Synthesized pads provide the harmony and are affected by filter sweeps, a sonic interpretation of starlight refracting through rain sheets.

Hold Me, Rock Me by Brian Tate

Text by Brian Tate, based on lyrics from traditional spirituals

Ruby Manning, Kaleigh Manning, soloists

Hold me, rock me, calm and easy,

Hold me, rock me, deep and wide.

Hold me, rock me in your arms, oh,

I got a home on the other side.

Some day, gonna cross that river,

Some day, gonna head out on my own.

Don’t know where my journey leads,

But I’ll keep on walkin’ till I get back home.

My life is a runnin’ river

Flowin’ from the mountains to a distant sea.

I’ve known many hills and valleys,

But when I reach that ocean, I’ll be free.

Begin by Juhi Bansal

Text from “Babbage’s Dream” by Neil Aitken

Abigail Lewis, soloist

Someone dreams of fire in a field

In a could house, in the winter,

Your head is on the table,

Your mind, busily constructing a machine

Something taps at the door,

Calls you out from the deep

Reverie of making and unmaking

The wood is dark and full of veins

Lost in its haze, you glimpse a shape

Through the thick trees of night

And hear, the distant sound of an engine moving

its pistons and gears

Heavy with shudders and sighs

How it seems that you’ve always heard it coming

Long before it appears, the embodied will

Of the earth set to flame, a metaled desire

The semblance of an unknown name

You’ve carried home with you, unwittingly—

All night, you body singing

In the hallways mirror,

Something stirs in the corner of your eye

And you cannot say what it is

Only that grows,

like a wild fire in a storm

That it tastes of steam,

That you would lay every number in the world on end

And still, it would not be enough—

The heavens opening wide their spiraling arms

And the dark heart within yearning

to pull everything back

While you stand on the threshold, believing.

A Million Dreams from The Greatest Showman by Benj Pasek & Justin Paul

Kaleigh Manning, soloist

I close my eyes and I can see

The world that's waiting up for me

That I call my own

Through the dark, through the door

Through where no one's been before

But it feels like home

REFRAIN:

They can say, they can say it all sounds crazy

They can say, they can say I've lost my mind

I don't care, I don't care, so call me crazy

We can live in a world that we design

'Cause every night I lie in bed

The brightest colors fill my head

A million dreams are keeping me awake

I think of what the world could be

A vision of the one I see

A million dreams is all it's gonna take

A million dreams for the world we're gonna make

There's a house we can build

Every room inside is filled

With things from far away

The special things I compile

Each one there to make you smile

On a rainy day

(REFRAIN)

However big, however small

Let me be part of it all

Share your dreams with me

You may be right, you may be wrong

But say that you'll bring me along

To the world you see

To the world I close my eyes to see

I close my eyes to see

(REFRAIN)

Satellites by Trevor F. Shaw (ASCAP)

Commissioned by Inversion Ensemble for Inversion Nova’s Star Stuff concert

Text by Trevor F. Shaw

There's no greater joy I can imagine

Than to travel to every satellite

Wonderful places where no one has been

Think of the things that my eyes would behold

Jupiter, Saturn filling up the sky

Walking on the beach by a methane sea

I’d hike in space boots on rocky terrain

And practice skating on ice-covered moons

Erupting Io, frozen Europa

I’d hope to reveal where life is harbored

How thrilling to know we’re not alone

Waking each morning to the same sun’s light

I’m still stuck on Earth, though it’s not so bad

Having air to breathe suits me rather well…

Program note — Satellites is for two voice parts (soprano/tenor and alto/bass) and piano. I originally wrote the poem it is based upon to be read at one of Inversion's earliest concerts. I've since reworked the text to be less serious, and expanded it, loosely creating a 14-line sonnet (it was already set in iambic pentameter). The brisk 3/4 meter of the music simulates the feeling of soaring through the solar system, looking for fascinating moons to land upon and explore. While the harmony takes brief excursions into more adventurous territory, Satellites is essentially a tonal piece, beginning and ending clearly in E-flat major. It's meant to provoke the imagination as we look beyond the planets, and contemplate the many amazing, smaller worlds encircling them.

Venus by Abigail Lewis — world premiere

Text by Trevor F. Shaw

Singers from Inversion Ensemble

As I behold you, radiant in the sky

Dancing at sundown, adorning the dawn

From where I'm looking, there is no mistake

You are a goddess, and I am in awe

Though cloudy and white to our eyes on Earth,

We dare not touch you, nor merely go near

Beneath that façade lies a hostile world

Rivers of fire and unbreathable air

So, you remind me that I am mortal

How can I fathom a goddess's home?

Admiring afar, Jupiter's daughter,

Your complexity and elegant glow

Deity of love, you're awkwardly shy

But much like a star, you send me your light

Selections from “27 Haiku” by Steven Mark Kohn

Jonah Papovich, soloist

Behind Me the Moon

Text by Kikaku, translated by Peter Beilenson

Behind me the moon
Brushes shadows of pine trees
Lightly on the floor

From Watching the Moon

Text by Shiki, translated by Peter Beilenson

From watching the moon
I turned, and my friendly old
Shadow led me home

A Thousand Captains

Text by Basho, translated by Peter Beilenson

Here, where a thousand
Captains swore grand conquest,
Tall grass their monument

Part of Your World from “The Little Mermaid” by Alan Menken

Text by Howard Ashman

Makenna Ewing Barta, soloist

Look at this stuff

Isn't it neat?

Wouldn't you think my collection's complete?

Wouldn't you think I'm the girl

The girl who has everything?

Look at this trove

Treasures untold

How many wonders can one cavern hold?

Looking around here you'd think

Sure, she's got everything

I've got gadgets and gizmos a-plenty

I've got whozits and whatzits galore

You want thingamabobs?

I've got twenty!

But who cares?

No big deal

I want more

I wanna be where the people are

I wanna see, wanna see 'em dancin'

Walking around on those, what do you call 'em?

Oh, feet

Flippin' your fins, you don't get too far

Legs are required for jumping, dancing

Strolling along down a, what's that word again?

Street

Up where they walk, up where they run

Up where they stay all day in the sun

Wanderin' free, wish I could be

Part of that world

What would I give if I could live out of these waters?

What would I pay to spend a day warm on the sand?

Bet'cha on land they understand

Bet they don't reprimand their daughters

Bright young women, sick of swimmin'

Ready to stand

And ready to know what the people know

Ask 'em my questions and get some answers

What's a fire and why does it, what's the word?

Burn?

When's it my turn?

Wouldn't I love, love to explore that shore up above?

Out of the sea

Wish I could be

Part of that world

let's touch the sky by Suzette Emberton (ASCAP)

Commissioned by Inversion Ensemble for Inversion Nova’s Star Stuff concert

Text by e. e. cummings

if up's the word; and a world grows greener

minute by second and most by more-

if death is the loser and life is the winner

(and beggars are rich but misers are poor)

-let's touch the sky:

with a to and a fro

(and a here there where) and away we go

in even the laziest creature among us

a wisdom no knowledge can kill is astir-

now dull eyes are keen and now keen eyes are keener

(for young is the year, for young is the year)

-let's touch the sky:

with a great (and a gay

and a steep) deep rush through amazing day

it's brains without hearts have set saint against sinner;

put gain over gladness and joy under care-

let's do as an earth which can never do wrong does

(minute by second and most by more)

-let's touch the sky:

with a strange (and a true)

and a climbing fall into far near blue

if beggars are rich (and a robin will sing his

robin a song) but misers are poor-

let's love until no one could quite be (and young is

the year, dear) as living as i'm and as you're

-let's touch the sky:

with a you and a me

and an every (who's any who's some) one who's we

Permission has been requested; still awaiting response

Program note — This poem is a personal favorite of mine — the text is particularly poignant, considering the struggles of the day and delivers a beautiful message of hope, aspiration, love, belonging, and working to become our best selves.

Sweet Radiant Mystery by Catherine Dalton

Text by Catherine Dalton

O Sweet Radiant Mystery,

set us free from that which binds,

beckoning the soul to fly.

O Sweet Radiant Mystery,

open our eyes to see beyond

that which hides the soul from light.

O Sweet Radiant Mystery,

help us hear the endless song

of all that is and was and ever shall be.

Ad Astra by Jacob Narverud

To the stars through difficulties,

look upward, move forward,

leave all cares behind.