Choral SATB choir, piano
SKU: PR.342402070
Composed by Steven
Stucky. -. Ars Nova
Chamber Singers, Boulder
CO. Performance Score.
With Standard notation.
Composed 7-Feb. 8 pages.
Duration 3 minutes.
Theodore Presser Company
#342-40207. Published by
Theodore Presser Company
(PR.342402070).
ISBN
9781491111253. UPC:
680160643226. Octavo
inches. Text: Archibald
R. Ammons. Archibald
Ammons. Text by A.R.
Ammons.
To benefit
Chorus America, Stucky
allowed himself to be
auctioned off as a prize
- the high bidder would
receive a new work from
the composer. After a few
years and not really
hearing anything, Stucky
suddenly found himself up
against a deadline. He
reached back to a
favorite poem by A.R.
Ammons, Eyesight, which,
he says, Won't let...his
reader rest till the very
last word...one of those
sudden insights that
leave us
breathless..
This
piece has an odd history.
A few years ago, I agreed
to be one of
the“prizesâ€
in an auction to benefit
Chorus America: the
highest bidder wouldget a
new piece from me, while
their money went to the
organization. Thewinning
bid came from a
collection of several
professional choruses
anddirectors. But I was
always a little vague
about the details, and,
hearingnothing more about
it for a few years,
forgot the whole
thing.One day I received
a message from Thomas
Edward Morgan, directorof
the Ars Nova Chamber
Singers in Boulder: they
had scheduled thepremiere
of my new piece for a few
weeks later, and could
they have themusic,
please? I needed a text,
quickly, and (as usual) I
was in a Los Angeleshotel
room, not at home with my
books. So I turned to the
internet andsoon tracked
down my favorite poet,
A.R. Ammons
(1926-2001).Once I
stumbled on
“Eyesight,†I
remembered having loved
the poemyears before.
Archie must have loved
it, too, because he
included it bothin his
Collected Poems 1951-1971
and in the later Selected
Poems. It haseverything
you want in an Archie
Ammons poem: what Edward
Hirschcalled his
“offbeat, sideways,
unpredictable
radiance,†his
“homespunglory.â
It has one of his
trademark conversations
with a mountain
(perhapsfrom his native
North Carolina), it has
the fluid motion from one
line tothe next
(enjambment, if you want
to get technical) that
won’t let him
orhis reader rest till
the very last word of the
very last line, and it
has in thatlast line one
of those sudden insights
that leave us breathless:
“some thingsthat go
are gone.â€I miss
Archie, but he’s
not gone. I’m
grateful for the
wonderful poems heleft
us, and I’m
grateful that he was
always generous and kind
when I hadthe chutzpah to
add my music to his.
What If I Stumble?
