Twenty / Twenty (2020)

SATB choir and digital video / 7 minutes

Commissioned by Haverford College, Swarthmore College, Bryn Mawr College, & Hamilton College

Digital Premiere: December 2020
Haverford, Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr, and Hamilton College Choirs

Live Premiere: November 2021 at Church of the Holy Trinity Rittenhouse Square (Philadelphia, PA)
Choral Arts Philadelphia; Matthew Glandorf, cond.

PREMIERE

MEDIA

NOTE

In September 2020, I asked 100 singers from three collegiate choirs to complete the sentence “One year ago today, I did not know…” I compiled and edited their responses in order to create the text for Twenty / Twenty. Each line of the text is either based on a single response or is a synthesis of two or more related responses.

PRESS

“A quiet work that says it all.” (Philadelphia Inquirer, December 2020)

“Elegiac…great emotional impact…the ultimate symbolic return.” (Philadelphia Inquirer, November 2021)

“Seamless…quietly melodic…masterful .” (Phindie: Philadelphia Theater and Arts, December 2020")

TEXT

words by Scott Ordway and 100 co-authors

I could sing,

I could feel content,

I could learn to breathe underwater,

I could get by with so little,

I could spend so much time at home,

I could be so human.

I would be here again,

I would question everything,
I would miss the sound of traffic,

I would hold his hand one last time,

I would miss her so.

I could be here again,

I could feel so alone,

I could not embrace a friend,

Or stand close to strangers.

I could stand up,

I could feel content,

I could want so badly to go to a funeral,

I could breathe underwater.

I would wear a mask,

I would run from home,

I would be alone again,

I would say goodbye,

I would watch my city burn.

I would not leave the house,

I would not leave this town,

I would not stand with others,

I would not see a friend, and

I would not go home.
 


One year ago today, I did not know:

How much I could cry,

How much I could take for granted,

How much I had left to learn from my parents,

Or that we could ignore the science,

We would not stand together,

I would live behind a mask,

We could not stand together.

I did not know that

I was strong, that

I was falling in love, that

I had so much to learn, that

I was already in love, that

People make me feel alive.

I should have held you closer.

Text and video co-created with:

Liam Ash
Aidan Bannon
Elinor Berger
Deb Bergstrand
Josie Blatt
Kyle Bledsoe
Sofi Block
Amanda Bonnet
Kate Burnham
Ellen Carlson
Cassidy Cheong
Phoebe Child
Gweneth Child
Grace Coberly
Genevieve Cohen
Kelly Collins
Jude Correll
Ray Craig
Sophie Crehan
Celeste Cubbage
Margo de Abreu
James Delinois
Beez Dentzer
Dylan Dixon
John Dvorak

Molly Erdman
Reni Esan
Anna Finkelstein
John Frank
Adam Friedman-Brown
Anna Gagliardi
Reuben Gelley Newman
Gabriela Godin
Jeremy Gordon
Whitney Grinnage-Cassidy
William Haresch
Ryan Hayes
Xia Headley
Simon Herz
Helen Higgins
Hannah Holt
Yiying Jiang
Paul Joslin
James Kaeser
Julia Katowitz
Savannah Kelly
Ben Klamka
Daniel Koobatian
Llewellyn Lafford
Sampson Lamberth
Jules Lee-Zacheis

Ana Legaspi
Julia Mancuso
Michael Maturana
Keith MburuAmy McColl
Elizabeth Mickelson
Doris Mitrani
Simon Moore
Ryan Murphy
Neary Narom
Meg Ozawa
Jorge Padilla
Charlotte Park
Charlotte Pasko
Kate Peinkofer
Hannah Petersen
Jasmine Pierre
Maya Plotnick
Jordan Polster
Rebecca Posner-Hess
Cole Roland
Ellen Sassé
Rachel Schiffer
Veronica Seixas
Olivia Seymour
Mia Shoquist

Sunka Simon
Anna Skrobala
Hannah Sobel
Kirsten Speidel
Robbie Spratt
Neil Steinglass
Willow Swidler Notte
Jenna Takach
Elanor Thomas
Anna Thompson
Nikhil Tignor
Eric Trinh
Kat Tsaryova
Alissa Vandenbark
Josh Vandervelde
Khalil Walker
Julia Welbon
Kai Williams
Gene Witkowski
Zhaoyi Xiang
Bilge Nur Yilmaz
Viktoriia Zakharova
Michelle Zhuang

In September 2020, composer Scott Ordway asked 100 singers from three collegiate choirs to complete the sentence “One year ago today, I did not know that...” He compiled and edited their responses in order to create the text for Twenty / Twenty. Each line of the text is either based on a single response or is a synthesis of two or more related responses.

Responding to the themes addressed in the texts, Ordway composed a new, six-minute work for choir. Each singer recorded their part individually and these individual clips were assembled digitally to create the world-premiere recording of the piece.

At the same time, each singer made video recordings of the place where they have spent the pandemic. These included houses and apartments, dorm rooms, childhood homes, and the natural and urban environments which surround them. They filmed objects which were important to them during the long quarantine, daily activities which marked the passage of time, and the views from their windows. They searched for images which sum up what they hate most about the way the world is today, and images which reflect the injustices highlighted by this year’s protest movements. They tried to capture someone’s perspective other than their own.

All together, they generated more than 1,600 audio and video clips.

The scope and creative direction of the project was shaped through a series of conversations with conductors from each of the three co-commissioning colleges: Charlotte Botha (Hamilton College), Joseph Gregorio (Swarthmore College), and Nathan Zullinger (Haverford College).The final video was created by a team which included audio engineer Alexander Brusencev (Frankfurt) and two research assistants from Ordway’s Research Group in Music Composition at the Aresty Center for Undergraduate Research, Rutgers University: Mateo Urgilés (Ecuador) and Kimberlee Sibilia (New Jersey).

I could sing,
I could feel content,
I could learn to breathe underwater,
I could get by with so little,
I could spend so much time at home,
I could be so human.

I would be here again,
I would question everything,
I would miss the sound of traffic,
I would hold his hand one last time,
I would miss her so.

I could be here again,
I could feel so alone,
I could not embrace a friend,
Or stand close to strangers.

I could stand up,
I could feel content,
I could want so badly to go to a funeral,
I could breathe underwater.

I would wear a mask,
I would run from home,
I would be alone again,
I would say goodbye,
I would watch my city burn.

I would not leave the house,
I would not leave this town,
I would not stand with others,
I would not see a friend, and
I would not go home.

One year ago today, I did not know:
How much I could cry,
How much I could take for granted,
How much I had left to learn from my parents,
Or that we could ignore the science,

We would not stand together,
I would live behind a mask,
We could not stand together.

I did not know thatI was strong, that
I was falling in love, that
I had so much to learn, that
I was already in love, that
People make me feel alive.

I should have held you closer.