Holding Our Breath

Hola, Peeps! Here are a few details about this piece. Enjoy and let me know if there is any mistake or if you want to talk about a different version for your choir.

The ones for the conductor:

Duration: 6

Voicing/Instrumentation: SATB div

Available Versions: SSAA/TTBB

Language: English

Premiere: To be added!

Listen/ See the Score: 

The ones for your the program:

Program Notes: Breathing is what keeps us alive. It is the mechanism that allows us to sing and communicate. Whenever we are troubled or are in a time of crisis, our instincts are to either hold our breath or to breathe. Taking slow breaths and centering ourselves is what brings us back to a more serene state. During this pandemic, breathing has been deemed dangerous, being the principal mechanism of how COVID-19 is spread. It is also the time where the phrase “I can’t breathe” became the powerful last words that moved an entire nation to demand rights, not only for the life of a man but an entire population. Breathing is a cycle that can’t and should not be interrupted.

Holding Our Breath is a piece about facing the fear to breathe: on an individual level as well as next to each other again, and the courage to be together once more; slowly taking in what it means to be alive and singing next to one another.

https://www.halleonard.com/product/366241/holding-our-breath

Author: Julie Flanders

Text: What happened?
(audible gasp)

What is happening (to us)
(audible gasp)

Can you breathe?
Please, help me!

I can’t...
“I can’t breathe”

Can you breathe?

Can we breathe again?
We are holding on
We are holding our breath

With this one breath
I pray

With this one breath
I hope

With this one breath
I let go

With this one breath
I stay

With this one breath
I say I love You

With this one breath
I say goodbye

With this one breath
We Breathe.

(audible sigh)

Other awesome details we tell people 🙂

Year of Composition: 6

Awards:

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