Photograph by Scott Ordway (California, 2021)

We Are These and Many Other Things (2023)

Soprano, violin, cello / 5 minutes

PREMIERE

Written for Ah Young Hong

Premiere: 28 May, 2023. Christopher Cairns Studio; Havertown, PA. Ah Young Hong, soprano; Conrad Harris, violin; Coleman Itzkoff, cello.

NOTE

I composed this short work in consideration of those moments when we are most convinced of the fundamental goodness of the world and our place in it, and in consid- eration of those moments when we are least convinced of the funda- mental goodness of the world and our place in it.

MEDIA

TEXT

by Scott Ordway (2023)

So cold
So strange
So firm
So raw
So lost
So there
So dead
So plain
So still

Not cold
Not strange
Not firm
Not raw
Not lost
Not there
Not dead
Not plain
Not still

So joyful
So lovely
So tender
So pretty
So open
So normal
So careful
So careless
So perfect

Not joyful
Not lovely
Not tender
Not pretty
Not open
Not normal
Not careful
Not careless
Not perfect

So cold
So lovely
So strange
So joyful
So still

This short song is based on a passage from Wings of the Dove by Henry James. Its short text expresses a sense of longing for the faraway, the immeasurable, the unknown, and the unknowable.

The Ceiling, the Treetops, the Sky (2018)
Text by Scott Ordway after Henry James

The ceiling,
The treetops,
The sky.

To drop what was near,
And to take up what was far.

Adapted from Henry James, Wings of the Dove (1902)

"It was the accident, possibly, of his long legs, which were apt to stretch themselves; of his straight hair and his well-shaped head, never, the latter, neatly smooth; and apt into the bargain, at the time of quite other calls upon it, to throw itself suddenly back and supported behind by his uplifed arms and interlocked hands, place him for unconcionable periods of time in communion with the ceiling, the treetops, the sky. He was in short visibly absent-minded, irregularly clever, liable to drop what was near and to take up what was far."