Choir

The (Real) Love Life of Emily Dickinson

current project

Text by Emily Dickenson

Commissioned by Quorum Boston

SATB choir

Purchase the She Sights a Bird score here!

For almost a century we were told the lie that Emily Dickinson was a lonely spinster who had horrible luck with men. This is not true. The truth was that Emily Dickinson was a closeted lesbian who had a life long relationship with Susan Huntington Gilbert. They first met as childhood friends, and then when they got older, Susan was wedded to Emily Dickinson's brother Austin Dickinson. Emily and Susan continued their relationship in secret until Emily's death. After Emily's death, Austin's mistress, Mable Todd found Emily's letters and thought they deserved to be published. However, she noticed that Emily's letters to Susan were rather passionate and didn't think she could publish them in their original format. Therefore, she erased Susan's name on the letters, wrote the name of a man over that, and made up the lie that Emily was a lonely spinster who couldn't find a man.

Looking at Emily Dickinson's life through a queer lens gives us a completely different interpretation of her letters and poetry. This suite sets poetry she wrote with that lens in mind. It includes some of her well known poems as well as letters Emily wrote to Susan in the form of poems.

I. She Sights a Bird

II. Wild Nights

III. Her Breast is fit for Pearls

What is G-d?

Text by Quinn Gutman

Commissioned by Quorum Boston

SATB choir

Premiered: December 10 and 13, 2018 at the Josephine A. Fiorentino Community Center in Allston, MA and the First Church in Cambridge, MA.

Duration 3:30

Purchase the score here!

This work questions G-d’s being, identity, and gender. Why is it that our most common image of G-d is an old white man? Maybe G-d’s a young person? Maybe G-d’s a person of color? Maybe G-d’s female or non-binary? Or maybe G-d isn’t a person at all? To the Hebrew speakers who first wrote the old testament, G-d was no more than a masculine noun. Doesn’t mean G-d’s a person. In fact, does the bible even call G-d a person?

Music, When Soft Voices Die

Text by Percy Bysshe Shelley

SATB choir

Premiered June 28, 2011

Duration: 3:00

Purchase the score here!

Music When Soft Voices Die represents how one hears a voice calling. The closer they get to the voice that is calling, the louder it becomes, and the further away, the softer it becomes. The entire piece is built around one large crescendo and decrescendo. It alternates between two sections. One of the sections is a series of contrapuntal melismas on an “Ah” vowel. The dynamics change dramatically over expressive lines in this section. The other section is the choir singing on text. They sing a bit softer and in more of a chordal fashion. The form of this piece is put together like this: Vocalise, Text, Vocalise, Text, Vocalise