"Are our hours ours alone?"
- Todd Boss
| About |
A series of haunting existential questions, posed as if by a pack of wolves, forms the text of this 10th collaboration between composer Jake Runestad and poet Todd Boss. Rather than write an attempted explication of the sound, or anthropomorphize it, or comment upon it, Todd chose to imagine it as an inquiry, a sounding in the dark, a plumbing of depths, that invites listener interpretation, thereby retaining its mystery. The text's interrogatives are infused with o and oo vowels and diphthongs designed to give the choir a unique sonic palette worthy of wolves' most eerie and inscrutable vocalizations. The musical lines enact a subtle passage of leadership from traditionally male to female voices, inviting questions about what humans can learn from the gender-roles and socializations exhibited by other species. |
| Instrumentation |
SATB choir with divisi, unaccompanied |
| Duration | 8:00 |
| Year Completed | 2023 |
| Commissioner |
San Antonio Chamber Choir. Rick Bjella, artistic director. |
| Text |
How'll You Know by Todd Boss Who'll you follow through the snow? |
| Errata | None |
| Donations |
A portion of the proceeds from the sales of this work benefit the International Wolf Center -- a non-profit that advances the survival of wolf populations by teaching about wolves, their relationship to wildlands, and the human role in their future. |
| More Info | None |