For all love lost and spirit gained

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For all love lost and spirit gained

Program Note

Flowers swirling into tubes of radiant light beaming in two directions;

honest filaments filtering futures forgetting my own transgression;

silk dabs soft moon skin of glowing thoughts burning holes into worn pockets;

an empty hat with holes for ears chilling in the farthest back and darkets places;

chilling on two grown moon silver wagging tails like puppies born;

of sons and fathers failures brothers let me down to carry on;

winnowing dreams evaporate clouds and two grown men cry:

"for all love lost and spirit gained, for all love lost and spirit gained".

– Ásta Sóllija, Joshua Jandreau (2018)

Instrumentation

Flute

Soprano

Percussion

Piano / Electronics

Violin I

Violin II

Violoncello

Text

I. We work with being, but non-being is what we use

Billy, let your flowers bloom,

From your mouth into the sky,

Sparkling black and far away,

Onward drifting through the night,

and when they've served their time,

Earth-freed, ascending rainbow pinwheels whirling

through atmospheres, connecting words unspoken,

resting atop the blackest peak.

II. Hold on to the center, if you stay in the center and embrace death with your whole heart, you will endure forever

A boy misunderstood, withstood

torrents unleashed in violent streams,

mouth fire hoses shooting fire at victims' silent screams

shielding against blazes, infernal heat

and so the flowers cease, decreased pieces

of plants littering trees

ease minds unused to kind beauty

and the world becomes stiff green

life cycles cycle life and circles become circles and

squares become circles and all circles are circles

and there are no hedges in mazes

no fire, blazes, shields wielded

to yield fields of fire pouring out hate

from those with no desire to see colorful

pinwheels circling and sprinning cerulean wonder

and there it becomes dry

black oceans devouring black lives

missing teeming creatures

and blessing curved nuance of white pride

one by each, blinking snuffed

delicately winking out of existence

extinguished sky-ocean darkens with those

never knowing history and their place of resistance

Among sisters and brothers,

flowers ascended through mists like mothers

testing that without them we'd

surely blind one another,

and they disappear

blindly fumbling without understanding

demanding fixes for ignorant glad-handing

older but no wiser losing

what little of ourselves along the way

III. Practice not-doing, and everything will fall into place

precious lilies, we, trembling,

swallow hymns like cigarettes,

birds were in our dreams last night,

animal contour sparkling

Billy, let your flowers bloom

from your mouth into the sky

sparkling black and far away

onward drifting through the night

For all love lost, and spirit gained,

For all love lost and spirit gained.

– Joshua Jandreau, 2018

Media

General Info

Year(s) composed: 2018

Duration: 12:00

Premiered

May 12th, 2018

33 Union Square

Third Life Studio

Somerville, MA

Sonic Liberation Players

Andrea Lieberherr Douglass, flute

Jessica Tunick Berens, soprano

Joshua Jade, percussion

Trevor Berens, piano / electronics

Gabriel Solomon, violin

Leah Bartell, violin

Rachel Barringer, cello

For all love lost and spirit gained

Program Note

Flowers swirling into tubes of radiant light beaming in two directions;

honest filaments filtering futures forgetting my own transgression;

silk dabs soft moon skin of glowing thoughts burning holes into worn pockets;

an empty hat with holes for ears chilling in the farthest back and darkets places;

chilling on two grown moon silver wagging tails like puppies born;

of sons and fathers failures brothers let me down to carry on;

winnowing dreams evaporate clouds and two grown men cry:

"for all love lost and spirit gained, for all love lost and spirit gained".

​

– Ásta Sóllija, Joshua Jandreau (2018)

Instrumentation

Flute

Soprano

Percussion

Piano / Electronics

Violin I

Violin II

Violoncello

Text

I. We work with being, but non-being is what we use

​

Billy, let your flowers bloom,

From your mouth into the sky,

Sparkling black and far away,

Onward drifting through the night,

and when they've served their time,

Earth-freed, ascending rainbow pinwheels whirling

through atmospheres, connecting words unspoken,

resting atop the blackest peak.

​

II. Hold on to the center, if you stay in the center and embrace death with your whole heart, you will endure forever

​

A boy misunderstood, withstood

torrents unleashed in violent streams,

mouth fire hoses shooting fire at victims' silent screams

shielding against blazes, infernal heat

and so the flowers cease, decreased pieces

of plants littering trees

ease minds unused to kind beauty

and the world becomes stiff green

life cycles cycle life and circles become circles and

squares become circles and all circles are circles

and there are no hedges in mazes

no fire, blazes, shields wielded

to yield fields of fire pouring out hate

from those with no desire to see colorful

pinwheels circling and sprinning cerulean wonder

and there it becomes dry

black oceans devouring black lives

missing teeming creatures

and blessing curved nuance of white pride

one by each, blinking snuffed

delicately winking out of existence

extinguished sky-ocean darkens with those

never knowing history and their place of resistance

Among sisters and brothers,

flowers ascended through mists like mothers

testing that without them we'd

surely blind one another,

and they disappear

blindly fumbling without understanding

demanding fixes for ignorant glad-handing

older but no wiser losing

what little of ourselves along the way

​

III. Practice not-doing, and everything will fall into place

​

precious lilies, we, trembling,

swallow hymns like cigarettes,

birds were in our dreams last night,

animal contour sparkling

Billy, let your flowers bloom

from your mouth into the sky

sparkling black and far away

onward drifting through the night

For all love lost, and spirit gained,

For all love lost and spirit gained.

​