Some time ago I had the immense pleasure of being granted permission by Picador poet Katharine Towers to set one of her poems (and one of my favourite) in an art song format for Soprano and Piano. It's titled the Way We Go and is just exquisitely evocative in its simplicity. The language , while allegorical, is so sensory as to be almost tangible.
"the way we go about our lives
trying out each empty room
like house we might own
eavesdropping for clues in corridors until
standing at a gate or attic window
seeing beauty in a flag of sky
we're gone, leaving the doors open
all the lights burning"
I could later not resist reworking it into a work for Choir as part of a Choral Competition Call for Scores for highly esteemed Swedish Male Voice Choir , the Linköping University Choir. They have toured all over the world and won many choral competitions.
