Racing the Moon | ORS Youth Choir

Описание: Racing the Moon
Music by Naomi LaViolette
Text adapted from poetry by Luci LaViolette

Oregon Repertory Singers Youth Choir
Aubrey Patterson, Artistic Director

Oregon Repertory Singers, guest performers
Luci LaViolette, soloist
Naomi LaViolette, piano

Amer Isse, Sound Technician
Pierre-Alain, Videographer and Editor
Recorded at First United Methodist Church, Portland, OR

Program Notes by the composer
With text adapted from poetry by my daughter, Luci LaViolette, the first half of Racing The Moon addresses the common struggles of proving oneself, getting ahead, and the angst of comparison. Through minor dissonance and regular occurrences of two-against-three rhythms, the music expresses the contrast of rigid striving with fluid, more circular movement. As the song gives way to a major key modulation and changes to compound meter, the second half settles into a state of flow. The text invites us to focus on the present moment and participate in the exciting race of life as an ongoing communal dance and song, rather than a competition to be won or lost.

Text by Luci LaViolette
Racing the moon
Watching from my car
Keeping time in my window
Turn left she falls behind
Turn right she’s leagues ahead
A race that’s never won, and never ends
Turn left she falls behind
Turn right she’s leagues ahead
A winless race that never ends
Night after night she gallops beside us
Peeking through stars and shrouded in silence
The moon in her climb, striving to win
Leaping ahead just to fall back again
Racing the moon

I feel like the moon
Never stopping this race
Constantly working, reaching, trying
Turn left I fall behind
Turn right I’m leagues ahead
A winless race that never ends
Always something to run to
Somebody better
Those that surround me
All are ignored
I race the sky, night after night
All I can see is what I could be
I feel like the moon

Racing the moon
Join in the dance, join in the song
Waxing and waning she pulls us along
No one will win, no one will lose
Racing the moon
I’m learning how
there only is now
Racing the moon